On Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, at 11.30 a.m. Joseph Gallivan interviews Derek Franklin about “A Question of Hu: The Narrative Art of Hung Liu” [PRONOUNCED LEE-oo]. The show is on now through December 2, 2023. Franklin talks about Liu’s textural paintings, her use of symbolism and realism, and her relation to socialist realism and Warhol’s Mao prints. Franklin is the Artistic Director of Converge 45 https://www.converge45.org/of which this Hung Liu show is a part, with the works drawn from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. There will be a talk about Liu at PSU on November 5 by her widower Jeff Kelly and her foundation’s head Dorothy Moss. https://allevents.in/portland/talk-with-jeff-kelly-and-dorothy-moss/10000710624225187?ref=eventlist-cat
This interview was recorded on Sept. 16, 2023, using Zoom video conferencing software and engineered by Ray Bodwell.
From the press release:
https://www.jordanschnitzer.org/exhibition/narrative-art-of-hung-liu-jsm...
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU
1855 SW Broadway • Portland, OR 97201
Beginning in the 1970s until her death in 2021, the pathbreaking Chinese-born American painter Hung Liu made highly narrative images that foregrounded workers, immigrants, refugees, women, children, and soldiers in haunting, incandescent portraits that mingle Chinese and Western traditions.
One of the first Chinese artists to establish a career in the United States, Liu explored the fragile relationship between memory and history in paintings and works on paper that focus on communities misrepresented or marginalized by official narratives. Featuring multilayered brushstrokes, washes of linseed oil, and experimental printing techniques, Liu’s knotty if purposefully accessible oeuvre has been characterized by her husband, critic Jeff Kelley, as a species of “weeping realism.”
As part of a collaboration with Converge 45, The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University will host an exhibition of paintings and prints by the late Chinese American artist Hung Liu in the Fall of 2023. Drawn entirely from the exhaustive holdings of the collections of Jordan Schnitzer and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, the exhibition will provide a major entry point for Converge 45’s citywide discussion of Social Forms: Art & Global Citizenship. An exhibition of eleven paintings, three cotton Jacquard tapestries, and a complement of lithographs and other works on paper, A Question of Hu will serve to introduce Lui’s remarkable work to the Pacific Northwest, while demonstrating—like few artistic oeuvres can—an expanded view of citizenship in an era of seismic change that is also fundamentally marked by evolving ideas of artistic solidarity and collaboration.
Talk with Jeff Kelly and Dorothy Moss
JSMA at PSU is thrilled to host a conversation between Jeff Kelly and Dorothy Moss
Join us for a talk with Art Critic and Curator Jeff Kelly and Director of the Hung Liu Estate Dorothy Moss.
More information to come. Current scheduled time is subject to change.
This program is free and open to the public. ASL interpreting will be provided.*
This exhibition is curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné, in conjunction with Converge 45 Biennial Program, Social Forms: Art As Global Citizenship.
*Accessibility initiatives have been made possible by a grant from the Richard & Helen Phillips Charitable Fund.
You may also like the following events from Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU:
Next Thursday, 21st September, 05:00 pm, Write Your Story | Write Around Portland in Portland
Next month, 7th October, 01:00 pm, Exhibition Tour in Portland
Also check out other Arts Events in Portland, Exhibitions in Portland, Nonprofit Events in Portland.
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Joseph Gallivan has been a reporter since 1990. He has covered music for the London Independent, Technology for the New York Post, and arts and culture for the Portland Tribune, where he is currently a Feature Writer. He is the author of two novels, "Oi, Ref!" and "England All Over" which are available on Amazon.com
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