Liu Wenxi (1933) was born in Shengxian, near
Shaoxing, in Zhejiang Province. In 1953, he entered the Zhejiang
Academy of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1958. After
graduation, he became a professor in the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts.
During the Cultural Revolution, Liu
was a member of Qin Wenmei, the Shaanxi (Qin 秦) Cultural Bureau (Wen[huaju] 文化局) Art Creation Group
(Mei[shu chuangzuozu] 美术创作组), where collaborative works were produced. Liu finds his inspiration in the
people and the scenery of northern Shaanxi.
Liu holds, among other positions, the
vice-chairmanship of the Shaanxi chapter of the Chinese Artists
Association and he is deputy mayor of Yan'an. He has acted as a representative to the National People's Congress.
The so-called "new" New Year print
movement of the early 1950s was characterized by the frequent portrayal
of leaders, usually showing their close relations with the masses. Liu
is considered to be one of the artists who most frequently portrayed
leaders; in Liu's case, the two themes recurring most often were either
Mao Zedong during the period the Party stayed in Yan'an, and his relations with the masses in the liberated areas.
Most recently, the People's Bank of China
commissioned Liu to paint Mao Zedong for a new set of currency, which
went into circulation on 1999. Mao's head graces the 100-yuan note, the
50, the 20 and the 10 of this fifth set since 1949.
Liu, who is married to the artist Chen Guangjian
(1936), has exhibited widely both in China and abroad. Many of his
works have been included in national collections.
Sources:
Julia F. Andrews, Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China 1949-1979 (Berkeley, etc.: University of California Press, 1994)
Beijing yuyan xueyuan Zhongguo yishujia cidian bianweihui, Zhongguo yishujia cidian --Xiandai diyi fence (Changsha: Hunan renmin chubanshe, 1981) [in Chinese]
Chen Lusheng, Xin Zhongguo meishu tushi—1949-1966 [The Art History of the People's Republic of China—1949-1966] (Beijing: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe, 2000) [in Chinese]
John Pomfret, "Currency Events: A Great Leap Backward?" Washington Post Foreign Service, 20 January 2002
Shen Peng, "Liu Wenxide renwuhua" [Liu Wenxi's figure painting], Meishu yanjiu [Art Research], 1980:1, pp. 59-62 [in Chinese]
Michael Sullivan, Modern Chinese Artists -- A Biographical Dictionary (Berkeley, etc:
University of California Press, 2006)
Zhongguo meishuguan (ed.), 中国美术年鉴 1949-1989 (Guilin: Guangxi meishu chubanshe, 1993)
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