National Gallery Singapore : Liu Kuo Sung Experimentation as Method

Liu Kuo Sung has extended the subject of Chinese painting way beyond the mountainous landscape of Earth, into outer space and onto the moon..... 

I have tried to combine Chinese calligraphy flowing brush strokes with western abstract painting and was delighted to know that artist Liu Kuo Sung has been doing it for his whole artistic career. I came to Liu Kuo Sung Experimentation as Method to witness how he did it. To do it exclusively in Chinese mediums , Chinese paper, Chinese ink is itself an implicit assertion that this artwork is a Chinese Ink Painting. However after adding foreign materials one can transform it into the Mixed Media  typical of the Abstract Painting category.  

I would imagine it would be an uphill battle for Liu Kuo Sung to convince the  traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy masters to view his artworks as Chinese Ink Painting. Liu Kuo Sung commented in the talk that Chinese Ink Painting still have a lot of room to grow.

 

 

The speaker who spoke of Liu Kuo Sung, divided his artistic life into 9 Acts. Each act is the period where the artist develop one painting style. The image above shows 9 painting styles for 9 Acts.

 Act 1 in the artist life starts with abstract painting that has a concept of covering and uncovering probably the artist was conflicted in what to say and not to say, and could be feeling and exercising self censorship that has been translated into the technique of painting over to cover up underlying paint.