Storm Scene

In Storm, Liú’s brush captures a moment of ominous tension. A fisherman, almost invisible at the lower left, is leaning forward as he poles his small boat away from the approaching storm. Heavy clouds seem to roll down the hills, their speed suggested by strong diagonals and wind-blown trees.

The inscription in the upper left poetically accentuates this sense of action in both the painting itself and the artist’s execution of it. It reads, "Spilling ink sweeps the paper faster than the storm; where the brush has not yet reached has already been devoured by its momentum." It is hard not to interpret this work based on Liú’s experience during the Cultural Revolution when the political persecution of artists and intellectuals struck the painter with a similar overwhelming rapidity.

The artist notes that this is the second inscription on the work. The first, at the right, highlights his relationship with Shih-Yen Wu and reads, "Storm. Composed on December 5, 1978. Dedicated to my good friend Shih-Yen. Painted by Liú Hǎisù."

Shih-Yen “Sam” Wu 武士彥 (1929–2016) was born in Taigu, Shanxi province in China, and studied at the Ming Hsien School, founded in 1907 with strong ties to Oberlin College. Wu’s father, Wei-Ching “Fredrick” Wu 武渭清, was a student at the Ming Hsien School and attended Oberlin for a year before receiving an MBA in finance at NYU. He went on to be the first Chinese treasurer of the Ming Hsien School. A life-long acquaintance of Liú Hǎisù, he introduced the artist to his son. Shih-Yen Wu graduated from Oberlin College in 1954. He received a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University and taught economics for more than 30 years at the University of Iowa. Beginning in the early 1970s, Professor Wu collected 9 paintings and 6 drawings by Liú Hǎisù, and saved a group of hand-written letters from the artist. The Allen was first contacted about the family collection by Dr. Jennifer Wu—OC 1990 and professor of economics at Berlin School of Economics and Law. After graduating from Oberlin, Dr. Wu was a representative of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association at Shanxi Agricultural University, the successor institution to the Ming Hsien School. She and her brother Dr. Gregory Wu helped to facilitate the family’s generous gift to the AMAM of Liú’s artwork and letters.