Label Type
Tombstone LabelLabel
Lullaby
Liu Zhide (Chinese, act. late 20th century)
1990
Paint on rice paper
Gift of Andrea and Irv Green, 2019.1.84Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
This painting honors the hard-working spirit of mothers. It depicts a mother who is weaving deep into the night while chickens roost and her baby sleeps. The cat was painted like toy cats from the region, with a rat in its stomach. The artist explains that the sound of the weaving is like “music at night.”
Liu Zhide’s first folk art painting, Lullaby, 1990, transplants paper-cutting techniques to painting: flat perspective, patterned shapes and serrated lines. The mother’s facial features are distorted like a paper cutting might be though her costume is realistically detailed. “The loom used by the woman to weave cloth is replaced by patterned shapes, but the warp threads are distinct, neat and regular.” Serrated lines, peculiar to paper-cutting, decorate the light from the single bulb. The blue color palette gives the night a romantic feel.Label Type
Artist CommentaryLabel
A tribute to Liu’s mother, the woman in this painting works late into the night weaving while her baby sleeps, her chickens roost, and her cat naps after a filling meal (still visible in his belly!). To Liu, the sound of weaving was like “music at night.”