

3 depicts a girl in profile, holding a Chinese sword.

1 features a girl with her back to the viewer, gazing out into the void, while Red No. Many of them feature cartoon-like girls standing on a cliff, silhouetted against a vibrant red background, the landscapes around them inspired by Song Dynasty paintings and mythical Chinese landscapes. 2 is part of an iconic series of paintings in which red is the dominant colour. Liu Ye provides little clues about what is causing the girl’s tears – whether it is joy or despair – but the intensity of her emotion is clear, as she gazes out into the vast field of colour that surrounds her. Her vibrant green skirt and coiffed hair flutters in the breeze, contrasting against her prim white blouse and knee-high stockings. This probably represents my earliest use of the prime colours of red, yellow and blue.” – Liu YeĪ little girl stands on the edge of a cliff, looking out over an expanse of red as delicate tears run down her delicately doll-like face. These subjects were mostly rendered with coloured pencils with red for the sun and the national flag, yellow for sunflowers and sunlight, and blue for the ocean and sky. Favourite subjects in my childhood paintings included aeroplanes, cannons and warships, and occasionally the sun and sunflowers. “I grew up in the days of the Cultural Revolution. My solution is to provide space for interpretation." I try not to provide single answers in my paintings. A single answer is therefore one-dimensional and inaccurate. "Red could symbolize revolution, joy, violence or bloodiness.
