Yue Liu was born in 1981 in Shanghai, where he studied painting and sculpture at the College of Fine Arts. After graduating in 2005 he turned to photography, creating ‘image-objects’ that went counter to the conventions. He had attracted attention even before finishing his studies, and was soon being exhibited in up and coming galleries in Shanghai and Beijing. In 2009 he took part in Scope, the new art fair in Basle (launched in 2007). In January 2011, his work was presented at Photo LA in Los Angeles.
The dominant feature of traditional Chinese painting, landscape is seen by some as a cultural symbol and the highest form of artistic emotional expression. The quilt, by contrast, only appeared in China with the coming of Mao in the early 1950s. At first it was a purely utilitarian source of comfort, with the collective consciousness excluding any expression of individualism and aesthetic preference. In the late 1970s, however, in the wake of reforms instituted by Deng Xiaoping, the quilt took on colours and floral motifs in a symbolic reflection of an entire people’s aspirations towards a better life. With his Mountain Blossom series Yue Liu offers a fresh approach to Chinese landscape painting, via an ‘image-object’, bearing witness to social change: the quilt of his childhood.
Sylvie Rebbot, Nian Zeng, curators
Text from the catalogue-book “Photoquai”, co-edited by Musée du Quai Branly- Actes-Sud
