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Lot Essay
“Every tool and medium has its own idiosyncrasies. The artist should play to their strengths, and use them to the highest possible potential.”
“Ink painting overlooks aspects of realism, forgoes the sense of volume, surface, and the play of light and shadow. Instead, it is deeply invested in the relationship between every dot and line. Hence, the abstract nature of the dot and line is the very foundation of ink painting.”
Liu Kuo-sung first visited Tibet in the 1980s. During the summer of 2000, after lecturing in Tibet, he embarked on journey to reach Everest Base Camp that brought about the breakthrough in his depiction of snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas. After several days’ journey, Liu arrived at where the spectacular magic of the mountains revealed itself: as sunlight shone through the peaks shrouded by clouds, majestic mountains shifted in and out of visibility that greatly enraptured the artist.
Upon his return, Liu Kuo-sung began to create the Tibetan Suite series of which Play of Mountain and Cloud, executed in 2002, is an early important work. Here, Liu combines technical mastery and an experimental use of materials. The creative process involves the peeling strands of fibre from a specially-made textured paper to outline the mountains in white. Through repeated painting, creasing and peeling of both sides of the paper, Liu creates atmospheric ‘portraits’ of snowy mountains, their topography shown through criss-crossing white lines set against the dark, expansive backdrop of a Tibetan sky.
“Ink painting overlooks aspects of realism, forgoes the sense of volume, surface, and the play of light and shadow. Instead, it is deeply invested in the relationship between every dot and line. Hence, the abstract nature of the dot and line is the very foundation of ink painting.”
Liu Kuo-sung first visited Tibet in the 1980s. During the summer of 2000, after lecturing in Tibet, he embarked on journey to reach Everest Base Camp that brought about the breakthrough in his depiction of snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas. After several days’ journey, Liu arrived at where the spectacular magic of the mountains revealed itself: as sunlight shone through the peaks shrouded by clouds, majestic mountains shifted in and out of visibility that greatly enraptured the artist.
Upon his return, Liu Kuo-sung began to create the Tibetan Suite series of which Play of Mountain and Cloud, executed in 2002, is an early important work. Here, Liu combines technical mastery and an experimental use of materials. The creative process involves the peeling strands of fibre from a specially-made textured paper to outline the mountains in white. Through repeated painting, creasing and peeling of both sides of the paper, Liu creates atmospheric ‘portraits’ of snowy mountains, their topography shown through criss-crossing white lines set against the dark, expansive backdrop of a Tibetan sky.