When one's time is inevitably overloaded with images and clamorous expressions, the oil paintings of Liu Kun, born in 1968, offer rare restraint and a still moment of meditative reflection.
From his earlier depictions of urban landscapes and vegetables to his latest use of blue as the dominant color in his works, what Liu cares about is not the physical forms of his subjects but the mental state of people lost in memory.
Blues/Big Blue, Liu's ongoing exhibition at Beijing's Today Art Museum, which runs through May 25, illuminates blue as an essential element in the artist's recent oil paintings. The moment they step into the museum, audiences are immersed in a calm yet nostalgic world created by shades of blue, from dark to light, that jump from the canvas to orchestrate a silent symphony.
In the world of painting, blue is "a vast and ambiguous territory", Liu says, referring to a variety of gradual hues — lake blue, cobalt blue, Prussian blue, and indigo. He adds that each shade is different from the other and, in his works, the varied combinations of blue "mirror the vagueness of the world".
A captivating group of works on show is themed on Yanjing Bajing, or the eight sceneries of old Beijing, in which Liu, a native of the capital city, rendered this phrase invented centuries ago with modern sensibilities laced with individual memories.
The first piece from which he began this collection is Peacock Blue — Sunset Glow at the Golden Terrace, named after Jintai Xizhao, one of the eight sceneries.
Jintai is the name of a main road in today's bustling CBD area, where he grew up nearby.
The accumulation of colors gives forms to the roads, trees and towering buildings that today define the skyline of one of Beijing's busiest commercial areas. It assumes an effect of ambiguity as if the subjects were showered with rain, which Liu says indicates his state when lost in childhood memories of the area where the landscapes have been drastically altered by urbanization.
In 2006, construction workers on a subway stop near Jintai Road found a stone tablet inscribed with the four characters jin tai xi zhao (sunset glow at the golden terrace), attributed to Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). For years, historians have debated whether the ruler's focus was on the scenery itself or on expressing ideals of preserving the past and enlightened governance.
"The entanglement between people, the natural environment and history are what fascinate me," Liu says.
Yan Yan, executive director of Today Art Museum and the exhibition's curator, describes Liu as an artist who works at a deliberate pace, enjoying the process of thinking, taking time to dab on strokes or pigments, and avoiding jumping to conclusions.
She says Liu's blue works hint at a state of uncertainty between remembering and forgetting. Standing before the artworks, one senses the quiet power of time "to reveal, to preserve, and sometimes, to blanket things", with the thick layering of pigments reflecting the depth of Liu's thoughts over the years.
