In December 1968, the US Apollo 8 mission shared a photo of Earthrise from space. This iconic photo shows Earth peeking out from the lunar surface, which inspired Liu Kuo-Sung to create his groundbreaking “Space Series”. The painting Sun and Moon is the epit.mes of this series.During this creative period, Liu acquired a new visual perspective of the universe for imagination and rumination, which reminded him of the astronomical phenomenon of the sun and the moon appearing simultaneously, also known as the “perpetual sun”, which deeply touched him when he was in Sweden in 1967. With the sun and the moon hovering in an imaginary space, this work presents itself in a rare composition, well manifesting that the artist was greatly inspired by the theme.


Sun and Moon, created from 1973 to 1989, garners Liu’s artistic fruits of multiple creation stages. The artist sprayed the shapes of the sun and the moon with acrylic paints on the canvas, leaving the red sun to resonate with the blue moon. On the indigo blue background, the waxing and waning of the sun and the moon resemble the contrast of Yin and Yang, forming an echo with the universal philosophy of traditional Chinese culture. Regarding the earth on both sides of the painting, Liu painted with big brushstrokes and the self-created "stripped tendons, peeled skin" technique – after composing the work and applying ink to the paper, he pulled the fiber off the paper's surface to reveal white crack-like texture. With large dimensions, the Sun and Moon is considered the biggest one of the artist’s early single-sheet works, displayed on six-foot paper (182 x 95 cm). In terms of conception, it can be traced to the Northern Song dynasty and the ambiance of Fan Kuan’s Travelers Among Mountains and Streams, which conveys a profound sense of the sublime boundlessness of the landscape. The overall colors of the painting also possess the qualities of those blue-green landscape works in the Tang and Song dynasties, blending with the brushwork of Song-dynasty landscapes to create a more delicate texture for the composition.

Liu's works have been collects ed by the top art galleries in the world since the 1960s. Completed in 1970, Sun and Moon: Floating? Sinking?, which has a similar theme as the Sun and Moon, is now sitting at the British Museum. Both paintings are delineated with imposing brushstrokes. Particularly, the last quarter moon in the piece Sun and Moon reflects the artist’s unlimited imagination of the cosmos.

1968年12月，阿波羅八號太空任務公佈一張自太空傳回的「地出」(Earthrise) 照片，此標誌性照片呈現由月球遠眺地球之景，啟發劉國松於1969年開創蜚聲畫壇的「太空系列」。本作《日月》即屬此創作系列的經典作品。太空畫時期為劉國松提供一個新宇宙視覺的想像與思考，藝術家從中聯想起1967年在瑞典觀賞「永晝」，目睹日月同光的天文奇景而深受感動。本作將日月懸浮的奇景想像放到太空之中，構圖罕有，可見藝術家深受此題材啟發。


《日月》的創作年期橫跨1973至1989年，集合了劉國松多個創作時期的藝術成果：藝術家以壓克力彩噴塗日月形狀，紅日與藍月在畫面上下呼應，日月之陰陽盈虧在深邃的靛藍背景上，形同太極之陰陽相對，展現中國傳統文化的宇宙哲學觀。兩側的地球可見劉國松以大筆觸的書法線條，加上其開創的「抽筋剝皮皴」，在創作中構圖及染色後，抽取紙筋，呈現有如裂縫的白色肌理。《日月》尺幅宏大，屬藝術家早年單幅作品的常規最大尺寸，其以六尺整紙（182 x 95 公分）呈現；從立意而言，本作氣魄直追北宋，猶有范寬《谿山行旅圖》之氣象，深得山水之崇高磅礴。畫面整體用色亦富有唐宋時期青綠山水的韻味，既融合宋代山水筆意，更為構圖賦予更細緻的脈絡肌理。

劉國松的作品自1960年代廣被世界頂尖美術館收藏，與本作主題相近，完成於1970年的《日月浮沉》正為大英博物館所典藏，兩作均可見富有氣勢的書法筆觸，《日月》更將下弦月的形象加諸畫面，展現藝術家對穹蒼太空的無限想像。