2012, Hung Liu, Happy and Gay I
From the museum label:
In this trio of paintings, Hung Liu depicts a father, mother, and child headed off to work in the morning, representing their idealized roles in the life of the Chinese proletariat. The father walks happily to the factory in his denim overalls, carrying his lunch pail. There is an uplift to his steps as he flows with fellow workers toward the gates of Factory 798 — ironically, the current location and name of Beijing's center for contemporary art. In the lower foreground, grass and flowers contrast with the looming smokestacks of the industrial compound.
In the second canvas of the series, the mother is seen in her pale pink work shirt, carrying a garden hoe raised over her shoulder as she strides purposefully to the fields to spend the day farming. The third canvas depicts their child stepping out of the village home, dressed in blue like his father and holding a gardening tool like his mother, representing a combination of Chinese values instilled in him by his parents.
Both the Chinese and American children's books can be viewed as promoting good behavior, portraying cartoon-like, idealized families cast in a pastel world while living a happy and productive life. Hung Liu associated the children's illustrations from the source book by Ling Tao Zhang, published in 1951, with the American Dick and Jane primers of the same historical period. "When I think of comparing these kinds of little books to Dick and Jane... I think of the way they're dressed, the way they behave and talk...just to teach children." In the three works, Liu raises questions about the fleeting nature of happiness within the context of socially-sanctioned, sometimes oppressive, family roles often upheld by society.
2012, Hung Liu, Happy and Gay I
From the museum label:
In this trio of paintings, Hung Liu depicts a father, mother, and child headed off to work in the morning, representing their idealized roles in the life of the Chinese proletariat. The father walks happily to the factory in his denim overalls, carrying his lunch pail. There is an uplift to his steps as he flows with fellow workers toward the gates of Factory 798 — ironically, the current location and name of Beijing's center for contemporary art. In the lower foreground, grass and flowers contrast with the looming smokestacks of the industrial compound.
In the second canvas of the series, the mother is seen in her pale pink work shirt, carrying a garden hoe raised over her shoulder as she strides purposefully to the fields to spend the day farming. The third canvas depicts their child stepping out of the village home, dressed in blue like his father and holding a gardening tool like his mother, representing a combination of Chinese values instilled in him by his parents.
Both the Chinese and American children's books can be viewed as promoting good behavior, portraying cartoon-like, idealized families cast in a pastel world while living a happy and productive life. Hung Liu associated the children's illustrations from the source book by Ling Tao Zhang, published in 1951, with the American Dick and Jane primers of the same historical period. "When I think of comparing these kinds of little books to Dick and Jane... I think of the way they're dressed, the way they behave and talk...just to teach children." In the three works, Liu raises questions about the fleeting nature of happiness within the context of socially-sanctioned, sometimes oppressive, family roles often upheld by society.