In Liu Xiaodong's Sons, the viewer is confronted with a moving, intimate, tender yet searing family portrait - a powerful masterpiece exemplary of the artist's powerful brand of realism. Created in 1995, Sons is a highly personal, important and special masterpiece bearing extensive literature and exhibition records. The image of the painting was featured on the promotional poster for the internationally critically acclaimed movie Sons by Chinese director Zhang Yuan - a film that documented the struggle for survival and peace of a grassroot family in China. The film won the Hivos Tiger Award and the Critic's Choice Award at the International Film Festival, Rotterdam in 1996. Liu Xiaodong’s art has been described as “documentary but not realist, yet more realistic than realism”; and he collaborated with renowned movie directors throughout his career. In 1995, while director Zhang Yuan was filming Sons, Liu Xiaodong visited the movie set. A photograph of the family characters in the movie was taken on set, and afterwards, Liu Xiaodong based his painting on the photo. Notably, Zhang Yuan commented on the painting by Liu Xiaodong: "The movie used 100 minutes to tell a story. Yet, this one painting covered so much. This is a testimony to his power as an artist". Almost overwhelming in its pictorial potency and emotional intensity, Sons is the perfect encapsulation of Liu Xiaodong's singular brand of realism that finds poetry and conscience in the everyday lives of ordinary people.

Born in 1963 in Jincheng, Liu Xiaodong arrived in Beijing in 1981 to attend the affiliated high school of the Central Academy of Replica Handbags . In 1984, along with Yu Hong, Liu won admission to the Third Studio of the CAFA’s Oil Painting Department. When he graduated four years later, campuses were infused with idealism when the ’85 New Wave swept across art schools large and small across the whole country; Liu was, however, unmoved by the new trends, regarding them as “excessive and immature”. Instead, Liu took t.mes to define and develop his own direction; in his own words: “I wanted to do things honestly, but also to paint explosively” (the artist cited in an interview with Li Xianting). In 1989, when Liu was invited to the controversial landmark exhibition China Avant-Garde, his submissions were accomplished prototypes of his pioneering realist documentary vision and yet were at odds with the highly conceptualist and aggressively idiosyncratic tone of the exhibition. The genius of his visual language was nevertheless recognized when Liu’s first solo exhibition, “Liu Xiaodong’s Oil Paintings”, generated tremendous response in 1990.

Thereafter, Liu’s painting began to influence painters of the 1990s, such that he became one of the earliest pioneers of the “New Generation”. His unique brand of art-making held its ground amidst the then popular and influential notion of Cynical Realism: in contrast to the blatant and boisterous satire of the Cynical Realists, Liu’s much more subtle, apathetic and detached documentary style powerfully crystallizes the conflicting energies of society at the t.mes . What is encapsulated within his scenes of mundane everyday life is a bittersweet concoction of tension, anxiety and disappointment mixed with helpless and passive acceptance. In the artist’s own words: “When you want to make a lot happen but cannot, you’re already full of contradictions. I try to represent this state in painting. You can feel a certain tenseness and pressure in my paintings” (the artist cited in an interview with Jean-Marc Decrop). On another occasion the artist stated: “I want my paintings to be more crystallizing. How? By nothing else but my momentary feelings and my persistence, I can crystallise it” (the artist cited in an interview with Li Xianting). In this sense, Liu’s modus operandi can be compared to that of a filmmaker; indeed, unusually in his t.mes for a contemporary artist, Liu often collaborated with Sixth Generation directors like Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yuan and Jia Zhangke, all of whom liked to focus on ordinary citizens in their feature films. Sons epitomizes precisely Liu Xiaodong’s unparalleled ability to extract and distil fragmentary moments of working class life and imbue them with rich symbolic and poignant significance. Liu Xiaodong's highly accomplished oeuvre will be honored in a forthcoming major retrospective at the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Shanghai, in July 2021.

「電影用100分鐘來表達一個故事，而這一張畫卻覆蓋了很多東西，足見他（劉小東）的功力。」

張元
《兒子》電影導演

《兒子》是劉小東90年代中期極為重要及獨特的作品。畫作取材自張元導演於1995年執導，以北京一家四口草根家庭的親情為主軸的同名電影《兒子》。劉小東創作多年，曾與無數著名導演合作，而本作的誕生正是他造訪了《兒子》的拍攝現場並為電影中的一家人拍了一張合影所成就。該影片後來於1996年獲得鹿特丹電影節最佳影片「金虎獎」及「最佳評論獎」。導演張元在訪談中就本作評價道：「電影用100分鐘來表達一個故事，而這一張畫卻覆蓋了很多東西，足見他（劉小東）的功力。」本作參展無數，擁有大量的文獻出版記錄，更被採用作電影的宣傳海報圖像。

劉小東的藝術「紀實但不寫實，卻比寫實更寫實」。他出生在一九六三年，早於一九八一年，他已經從家鄉金城來到北京，並就讀在中央美術學院附屬中學。八四年，他跟喻紅一起考入中央美術學院油畫系三畫室，四年後畢業，執起教鞭。當時的校園充滿著理想主義情緒，鬧哄哄的藝術新潮席捲全國各大小美術學院，但對劉小東來說，這一浪新潮藝術行為「太過火、火喉不對」。他反而花時間確定和發展自己的藝術方向，如他所說：「我希望老老實實的，但畫的東西一定要很有爆發力。」（引述劉小東與栗憲庭的訪談）一九八九年，劉小東被邀請參加當年轟動一時的〈中國現代藝術大展〉，初試啼聲，但在各種意識形態百花齊放，人人爭奇立異的前衞展覽中，他忠於生活的視角在當時顯得格格不入。一九九〇年，他舉辦的第一個個人展「劉小東油畫展」轟動一時，其藝術語彙終於獲得肯定。

自此之後，劉氏的畫風開始影響九十年代的後輩，令他成為最早的「新生代」藝術家。其創作手法自成一家，在當時風靡一時、影響深遠的「玩世現實主義」風潮中佔有一席之地；他的紀實風格偏向沉實，冷酷無情，透徹地反映當時社會上的對立力量，與玩世現實主義藝術家筆下嘩眾取寵的諷刺作品形成對比。在平平無奇的日常生活景象之中，蘊藏著一種苦樂參半的感悟，結合焦慮、不安及失望的情緒，同時只能無奈地接受。他曾言：「當你想做更多，但未能成事時，這已經充滿著矛盾。我會在畫中表達這種矛盾，你會在我的作品中感到這種緊張感及壓力。」（引述劉小東與讓·馬克·德克洛普的訪談）他亦在另一場合表示：「我特別希望我的畫再凝固一點，靠什麼凝固，就靠我這一瞬間的感受，靠長時間琢磨，能把它凝固起來。」（引述劉小東與栗憲庭的訪談）就此而言，劉氏的創作手法近似電影製作。當時藝術家與電影界的交流並不常見，但劉氏早已一直與第六代導演群，如王小帥、張元及賈樟柯等互有合作，他們共同把焦點放在小人物及平民百姓之上，創作了一系列電影長片。《兒子》正正體現了劉小東擅於對生活片斷的截取及提煉，把瞬間的片段轉化為充滿喻意的象徵。