Liu Kuo-Sung's Floating Mountain (1978) exhibited in the 14th Taipei Biennial "Whispers on the Horizon", on view at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
Liu Kuo-Sung, Floating Mountain, 1978
Photolithograph, 72 x 52 cm
Collection of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
A ridge seems to hover in space. Liu Kuo-Sung balances crisp, near-photographic edges with the tactile grain of lithographic printing — technique and feeling in one frame.
After graduating in 1956 from Taiwan Provincial Normal University (today National Taiwan Normal University), Liu co-founded the Fifth Moon Group (May Movement), a circle of young artists seeking a modern language for Taiwan. Their aim: move beyond salon conventions, fuse abstraction with Chinese traditions, and exhibit on their own terms. Beneath this was a broader search — how to speak locally while joining a changing world; how to honor ink and paper yet make something new.
In the 1960s, Liu built a modern idiom rooted in ink, often tearing paper into strips to shape form. Later, he explored marbling — floating ink on water and transferring it to paper — opening landscapes that feel both ancient and newly imagined.
Text and images courtesy of the Taipei Biennial.
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Liu Kuo Sung, Floating Mountain | 14th Taipei Biennial
