Contemporary Chinese Fine Art is pleased to introduce to you the work of a young and upcoming masterful Chinese realist painter, Liu Yuanshou. Born in Beijing in 1967, Liu earned a degree in oil painting from the Capital Normal University of Beijing in 1991 and has exhibited in and won awards in many prestigious exhibitions throughout Asia, including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan.

In "Silkworm," a raven-haired woman, delicately swathed in a loose, ivory-colored silk garment and a long, brilliant vermilion swag, closes her eyes toward an unseen light , one arm draped over what appears to be an old stone pillar, the other clutching her exposed knee. She, in fact, resembles a precious silkworm encased in its soft cocoon, retreating from the harshness of the outside world. A dark sultriness permeates the scene, with its muted backdrop of bare, brushed wall that graduates from black to dripping red, suggesting that the young woman has been engaged in at least mental reverie and is now dreamily spent after what the French lyrically refer to as le petit morte or "little death," that also refers to a spiritual release or a short period of transcendence.

While Liu Yuanshou hails from the austere north of China, he has become fascinated by the seductively temperate cultural and physical climate of the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu, which lies east of Anhui and north of Shanghai. Silkworm culture is and always has been an important part of Jiangsu's history, as is the production of silk textiles. Perhaps because of this, silk is especially evident in Liu's art, which primarily focuses on portraits of young women from the Jiangsu region. The artist is known for dressing his sultry subjects in Shanghai period or modern-day regional attire, as well as for integrating well-researched architectural elements and interiors from Jiangsu's urban and rural areas. According to Liu Yuanshou, by joining these two elements, he achieves "an ancient look of bygone nostalgia," one that conveys a sense of the profound beauty and historical longevity of China's cultural past, which he fears is being lost in today's frenetic technologically-oriented society.

Copyright 2007, Contemporary Chinese Fine Art. All rights reserved.