Max Liu Chi Wei, Queen of the Night, 2001
Mixed Media
34 x 26 cm (visible), 56 x 47 x 5 cm (framed)
Condition: Good
Artwork located in Taichung, Taiwan.
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Max Liu (Taiwanese, 1912–2002) was born in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, and was originally named Liu Fu-Sheng. At the age of nine, he moved to Japan with his family. After completing studies in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Tokyo Railway Technical Institute, he later joined the Armaments Bureau under the Ministry of Military Affairs of the Nationalist Government. He came to Taiwan to carry out post-war electrical infrastructure takeover and restoration work.
In 1949, he attended an exhibition at Zhongshan Hall in Taipei by the painter Xiang Hong (dates unknown), who was also an engineer. Deeply inspired, he began to explore watercolor painting on his own. Starting in 1971, he left public service and fully devoted himself to being a professional painter.
Max Liu's work integrates elements of art anthropology and field research into Indigenous cultures. Through painting, he promoted his love for nature and ecological conservation. He was known for using semi-abstract forms to simplify and transform the real world through imagination, creating a mysterious realm of primal innocence. His painting style has been described as decorative, harmonious, integrative, and humorous. Over the course of his prolific career, he painted people, animals, landscapes, reflections on life, the twelve constellations, the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, and even the invisible twenty-four solar terms—but never flowers.
He explained that although flowers are lovely and colourful, the reason he had not painted them over the years was that he wanted to focus more on animals to remind people of the importance of conservation. Flowers, which face relatively little threat of extinction, were naturally set aside.
(Photographed in June 2025)