Liu Kuo-sung, Mid-Autumn Festival, 2015

The original painting is predominately constructed by collage. However, the moon and Earth are created with the more painterly qualities of the “Ripping the Tendons and Pealing the Skin” technique, in which thick fibers of the rice paper are pulled from the paper’s surface, leaving rough textures behind. In order to represent the complex texture of the original painting, the print’s lines and contours were sharpened to create the illusion of mass and depth. Not only were additional screens added, but also the exposure time for designated screens were significantly lengthened.

In silkscreen printing, the original image is drawn by hand on an overlay, a type of paper similar to photographic film. The overlay is then placed on a screen pretreated with a coat of ink known as emulsion. Together, with the overlay on the bottom, the two are exposed to ultraviolet light from below. The area of emulsion blocked by the drawn image of the overlay is weakened by the exposure and is afterward washed off with water, leaving a stencil of the drawn image on the screen. Longer exposure time allows the ultraviolet light to create a sharper image. Therefore, in representing the complex textures in the Mid-Autumn Festival, exposure times for certain screens were lengthened from the standard ten seconds to one and even two minutes.

Artist: Liu Kuo-sung (Liu Guosong)
Based on Mid-Autumn Festival, 1969
Medium: Silkscreen Print on Paper (17 Screens, 17 Colors, 17 Runs)
Image: 103 x 70 cm (40 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.)
Paper: Arches, 100% Cotton, 300 g/m2
Date: 2015
Editions of 100, AP10
Signed, numbered, dated, and stamped with a seal by the Artist
Literature: The Scripture of a Missionary of Modern Ink Painting II, Lofty Art & Culture, 2015
Frame: Sold separately

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Mid-Autumn Festival

Catalog Entry
The Scripture of a Missionary of Modern Ink Painting II
Of Liu Kuo-sung’s abstract paintings, those with Chinese holidays as the subject matter express a very traditional sentiment. Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates the Chinese people’s poetic fascination with the moon, extending a literary tradition thousands of years old.
Liu Kuo-sung, Mid-Autumn Festival, 1969 © The Liu Kuo-sung Archives