1、刘老师早期是做雕塑成名的，到那时开始画这些充满梦幻的系列呢?在画画技巧和风格上有什么突破?

　　九十年代初期，当时的中国是处于封闭的时代，随着改革开放的到来，新的思想及新的精神涌入，形成了中国当代艺术的一个独特的风景线，在这个时间段里，出现了很重要的三个流派，其中一个流派叫艳俗艺术，我是其中的一位主要成员，这种流派的风格主要记录了当时中国现实社会中的民众的生活场景和风俗习惯。如实的反映了当时中国人的精神、物质、文化、思想等各个方面的面貌。而这一代的艺术家，他们都出生在六十年代，正是赶上中国历史上的文化革命。是历史给这代人打上了深刻的烙印，他们承载了过去和未来，它是一个时代的拐点，在他们的身上得到充分的展现。

　　随着历史的推进和现实环境的改变，我的作品风格也有了新的意义，这批平面绘画是在我孕养了几年的时间里，在2008年开始着手创作的，至今六年的时间。我承起早期作品的幽默性，画面表现颜色的艳丽和民间语言的叙述方式，同时增强了内容的故事性和戏剧性，通过一种讲述的方式来表达我对现实生活的态度和未来时空的探索以及对宇宙宏观神秘变换的世界的遐想。我打破了早期单一的符号化语言的表达方式，用多点的叙述和丰富的形象符号来描述我对今天及未来的态度，极尽权述的承载多元化的、多视角的现实和未来的场景，以饱满的激昂的热情使作品的内涵承载了丰富的力量。这种承载和叙述更能体现我内心世界涌动的激情。我运用了多时空、多视点、多形象、多符号化的语言，这只是我创作表达的一种手段和方式。也是我的一个典型化新风格的另一种体现。

　　2.您每一张作品或系列的构思和启发从哪来?颜色方面又是怎样去取舍?

　　我的作品创作体验是来自我的内心世界，是我对自然的一种感悟，是我的精神价值的呈现。我以为这个世界是平等的、祥和的、博爱的，生命和生命是相通的。在上帝面前是平等的，也是我的人文主义，精神价值的开启。在色彩语言的表达方式上具有迷离的梦幻的想象，使颜色更具有浪漫和诗一般的意境，是我的心灵和上帝的一次接吻和对话。

　　3.作为一位艺术家，您希望您的欣赏者从中有何感想，或得到什么讯息?

　　艺术家的创作，是艺术家心路历程的写照，对观赏者而言，是灵魂与灵魂的对话和交流。那么这种观赏者用自身的角度来观赏我的作品，会给我一个新的互动方式。

　　4.听说您今年年底会跟诺贝尔文学奖得主莫言会谈，您准备了用怎样的角度去研讨中国艺坛这一个大题目?

　　我感兴趣的话，只有这个世界的精神价值和未来的走向，我们在哪里?我们为什么还存在?我们下一个诺亚方舟何时出现?

　　

 

AFG ARTIST INTERVIEW - LIU LI GUO
NEWSLETTER APRIL 2013

　　1.Liu Li Guo, you were first famous for your sculptures. When did you embark on surrealistic paintings? What make your painting style and technique unique?

　　In the early 1990s, China was distinct from the world. With reform and increasing openness, however, new concepts and sentiments forged a new pathway for Chinese contemporary art. During this period, there were three important schools. One was called Gaudy Art, and I was one of its major proponents. This school mostly recorded the living styles and customs of the Chinese public in real society, honestly reflecting their mood, resources, culture and state of mind. Most contemporary artists were born in the 1960s and experienced China’s Cultural Revolution, which left a deep imprint on them. This generation carries the past into the future and fully expresses the changes between these times.

　　As history and changes in the world unfolded, my work and style took on new meaning. I started the painting in 2008 and have been working at it for six years. I retain the humour of my early works with bright-coloured pictures and folk languages while steadily strengthening the narrative and dramatic elements of the content. Through the narrative style, I express my attitude towards everyday life, explore the future and examine the mysterious transformations of life that happen on a large scale. I go beyond expressing things through distinctive symbolic language and instead employ more narrative and colourful symbols to capture how I feel now and might in the future. My works carry diverse and multifaceted scenes of reality and are fuelled by passionate enthusiasm. This method can best express the passions teeming in my inner world. I use multiple perspectives on time, image, and symbolic language to not just create but also reflect a fresh yet classic style.

　　2.Liu Li Guo, you were first famous for your sculptures. When did you embark on surrealistic paintings?What make your painting style and technique unique?

　　My creativity comes from my inner world which consists of my attitude towards nature and manifests as my spiritual values. I believe the world is righteous, peaceful, and full of love and interconnected lives. We are righteous before God and this belief forms the basis of my humanity and spiritual values. A vivid imagination enables me to select colours based on how they reflect my sense of romance or artistry, similar to how a poet chooses his or her words. When I do this, my heart communes with God.

　　3.As a professional painter, how would you like to influence your audience? Are there any messages you would like to convey?

　　The creation of a painter’s work is a representation of his or her journey. For audiences, the work offers a conversation between different souls. The audiences who appreciate my work from their own perspectives can give me a fresh and unique style of interaction.

　　4.We heard you will be involved in a panel discussion with 2012 Nobel Literature Prize Winner Mo Yan at the end of this year. What topics will this discussion cover?

　　I am interested in the role of spiritual values in the world and the world’s future development. Where are we? Why are we here? When will our next Noah's Ark appear? Art Futures Group proudly presents Shen Jingdong and Yin Jun’s exhibition at the prestigious shopping mall, Elements at Kowloon Station, Hong Kong. The show was held between 21st January and 17th March,2013.The lucky winner for this event is Andrew Kelly who wins an artwork valued US$10,000.

　　　　HISTORIC US$10 MILLION GRANT

　　FOR CHINESE ART GOES TO GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

　　In a strong sign of the ever-growing influence of Chinese art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in New York City and the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation in Hong Kong recently announced a US$10 million grant to the world-famous museum.

　　As the largest grant bestowed to any U.S. museum in any field, the funding will significantly expand the Guggenheim’s collection of contemporary Chinese art and raise the profile of such artworks for the general public.

　　New works will be commissioned by artists born in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The grant also funds a new position at the Guggenheim for a curator of Chinese art, a position to be filled by the scholar Thomas Berghuis.

　　The historic grant follows the Guggenheim’s initiatives in recent years to promote Asian art, explained museum director Richard Armstrong.

　　“We are proud today….to join with the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation to expand long-term international awareness and appreciation of contemporary Chinese art,” he said.

　　Since the mid-1990s, contemporary Chinese art has consistently fetched high prices at auctions but is less well-known among the general public than traditional Chinese art. The grant will increase awareness of contemporary Chinese art, observed Alexandra Munroe, the Guggenheim’s Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art.

　　“We’re a very powerful platform for the presentation of Asian art,” Munroe noted. “We attract mass audiences who come….because they think they might see a Picasso. Then they [see] Asian art and fall in love with it.”

　　The Guggenheim Museum opened in 1939 to exhibit modern and contemporary art. The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation is a private philanthropic organisation established in 2005 to promote Chinese art and Buddhism.

　　Robert Y.C. Ho, the family foundation’s chairman, cited the Guggenheim’s global reach in asserting that the grant “will properly integrate Chinese artists into the world at large”.