Storm Scene

In Storm, Liú’s brush captures a moment of ominous tension. A fisherman, almost invisible at the lower left, is leaning forward as he poles his small boat away from the approaching storm. Heavy clouds seem to roll down the hills, their speed suggested by strong diagonals and wind-blown trees.

The inscription in the upper left poetically accentuates this sense of action in both the painting itself and the artist’s execution of it. It reads, "Spilling ink sweeps the paper faster than the storm; where the brush has not yet reached has already been devoured by its momentum." It is hard not to interpret this work based on Liú’s experience during the Cultural Revolution when the political persecution of artists and intellectuals struck the painter with a similar overwhelming rapidity.

The artist notes that this is the second inscription on the work. The first, at the right, highlights his relationship with Shih-Yen Wu and reads, "Storm. Composed on December 5, 1978. Dedicated to my good friend Shih-Yen. Painted by Liú Hǎisù."