Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A conversation between Philip Tinari, Director and CEO of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, Ying-chen Peng, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at American University, and Dorothy Moss, Ph.D., Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery and Coordinating Curator for the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
Hung Liu, who was born in Changchun, China, in 1948, experienced political revolution, exile, and displacement before immigrating to the United States. She came of age during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and was consequently forced to labor in the fields for four years in her early twenties before going on to study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Liu left China in 1984 to attend graduate school at the University of California, San Diego. At UCSD, the experimental tendencies of her advisor, foundational performance artist Allan Kaprow, and other artists helped cultivate her conceptual approach to portraiture. This conversation will focus on Liu's artistic journey, and will explore her approach to portraiture in the context of Chinese historical and contemporary art.
The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the recent passing of Daniel B. Greenberg, whose generosity and that of his wife Susan, makes the Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture possible. The program is hosted by PORTAL, the Portrait Gallery’s Scholarly Center.
A conversation between Philip Tinari, Director and CEO of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, Ying-chen Peng, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at American University, and Dorothy Moss, Ph.D., Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery and Coordinating Curator for the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
Hung Liu, who was born in Changchun, China, in 1948, experienced political revolution, exile, and displacement before immigrating to the United States. She came of age during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and was consequently forced to labor in the fields for four years in her early twenties before going on to study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Liu left China in 1984 to attend graduate school at the University of California, San Diego. At UCSD, the experimental tendencies of her advisor, foundational performance artist Allan Kaprow, and other artists helped cultivate her conceptual approach to portraiture. This conversation will focus on Liu's artistic journey, and will explore her approach to portraiture in the context of Chinese historical and contemporary art.
The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the recent passing of Daniel B. Greenberg, whose generosity and that of his wife Susan, makes the Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture possible. The program is hosted by PORTAL, the Portrait Gallery’s Scholarly Center.
