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‘Blue bemoans the passing of time, like flowing water’
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LIU Manwen, now in her mid-50s but ever elegant, uses her art to reflect the experience of women in her current exhibition in Shanghai.
The solo show of nearly 70 of her canvases will be on display at the art museum of the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute through September 21.
The oil paintings showcased in the exhibition are selected from three of the artist’s series: “Urban Boys,” “Blue Jazz” and “Archives of Pretty Women.”
Much of the focus is on the latter, which highlights renowned female movie stars of Old Shanghai.
Clad in a black silk dress with her hair cut short, Harbin-born Liu is the slender embodiment of delicate womanhood. She is reserved in explaining her artwork, leaving it to the imagination and interpretation of viewers.
The theme of yesteryear’s film stars is not new. They have been portrayed in various media, including movies, novels and television series. But in Liu’s vision, they take on an exceptional aura.
A 1982 graduate of the prestigious Lunxun Fine Arts Institute, Liu has a sensitive and exquisite way of perceiving life.
Her paintings are endowed with forceful expression.
She does not indulge in the typical bright-colored depiction of flowers to symbolize sex and is not obsessed with the depiction of life as aesthetic.
“The life experience of some of these stars, as many might know, was legendary or sad, especially in the male-dominant society of that time,” Liu said. “But what I was more interested in was how to present these familiar images to viewers through a particular visual power.”
Indeed, the famous film stars in her exhibition are familiar faces of Shanghai’s prosperous heyday in the 1930s and 40s. They have become cultural icons.
The series of Liu’s “Pretty Women” borrows from existing portrait stills to present highly enlarged facial features on big canvases. They form a strong visual impact cast in the light and shadows of a bygone era.
During the course of transforming photos or video images to canvas, Liu said she didn’t intentionally change the optical effects. Rather, she purposefully applied light and shadows to replace the reality of structure. Her canvases are infused with a deep blue hue, lending a mysterious air to the works.
“These women appear so elegant and beautiful on the surface, but life is not about that,” Liu explained. “We remember their charming smiles, but my paintings lend them a kind of nostalgia and lament. Time passes, flowers fade but a beautiful moment remains a classic. I want to portray women’s destiny through an angle of history and time.”
Art does indeed imitate life.
“I rose to early fame in the art community through my series called ‘Insipid Life’, which focused on my personal life at that time,” she said.
Her own face is mirrored in this series. She appears in different postures in different times and different spaces. The expression in her eyes hides her introspection about her family and life — insipidity concealing helplessness; sacrifice mixed with struggle.
“I felt quite depressed during that period,” Liu recalled, “There was something wrong with my life, but I didn’t know how to deal with it. I wanted to change to a new environment that would give me a new life, so I came to Shanghai in 2003.”
Her move to Shanghai was a big turning point. She divorced her husband, although she prefers not to discuss it.
“I never regretted what I have decided in my life,” she said. “Of course, a big cosmopolitan city inspired my brushstrokes.”
If her earlier works emphasized individual life experience, her perspective later switched to the breadth of society and the depth of history.
“It is always easier said than done,” she said, with a smile, “You can’t know how an artist’s transition is. You haven’t seen how many paintings that I threw out from my studio.”
Another eye-catching series at the exhibition is Liu’s “Blue Jazz.” Here, whole canvases are wrapped in a deep-blue background, depicting the private interior space of an urban woman. Sometimes a female character dominates the tableau; sometimes she disappears, leaving only an intimate suggestion to the viewers.
“Blue, to my eyes, is a perfect color to depict Shanghai and Shanghai women,” said Xu Hong, curator of the exhibition, “Blue casts the feelings of both indifference and elegance. These scenes appear familiar to us, yet, on the other hand, there is something intense or even mysterious behind the canvas.”
Liu’s works frequently portray the plight of women trying to find themselves.
Her own face, a major image in one of her paintings, stares out directly at viewers from a white mask. In her hand, she holds a camera.
Because of the mask, it is difficult for the viewers to find the real expression behind the work. Her hollow eyes reveal some emptiness generated by reasons that are obscure. Viewers are struck by the sensitivity and intricacy of the artist via these paintings. Sharing the stresses of modern life, they might experience the same sensations at home or at work.
“Blue bemoans the passing of time, like flowing water,” said Wu Hong, one of the top art critics in China, “I can see the reflection of the inner soul of the artist through these canvases.”
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