She also traveled in China, visiting historic sites and, using a pocket-size paint box, making copies of, among other things, murals carved and painted by Buddhist monks from the fifth to the 14th century in caves at Dunhuang, in far western Gansu province.
In the 1970s she studied at Beijing Teachers College and Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1981 she earned a graduate degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, where she specialized in and taught mural painting.
Restless with the officially sanctioned Socialist Realist style and subjects, she repeatedly applied to the Chinese government for a passport allowing travel to the United States. When permission finally camein 1984, she flew to California and enrolled in the M.F.A. program at the University of California, San Diego.
One of her teachers there was the conceptual artist Allan Kaprow, who had a long familiarity with Asian art and viewed both art and culture as ductile categories. His presence assured a welcoming environment for her aims.
After being awarded a residency at the Capp Street Project, an art space and artist residency in San Francisco, in 1988, Ms. Liu settled permanently in the Bay Area. In 1990 she began a long teaching career at Mills College in Oakland. She retired in 2014.read more
Hung Liu, Artist Who Blended East and West, Is Dead at 73
