Organized by Georgetown University Art Galleries, and guest curated by Dr. Dorothy Moss, Hung Liu: Happy and Gay features works by Hung Liu which adapt and subvert Maoist propaganda cartoons that were published during the 1950s. In the series, Liu revisits cartoons of her youth that were published in children's books and primers (known as xiaorenshu). Like the Dick and Jane readers circulating in the United States during the postwar era, the illustrations were used to socialize children by instilling values such as hard work, family unity, and patriotism. Liu's reformulation of this palm-size historic childhood imagery into large-scale, richly-painted contemporary canvases not only turns mass-produced illustrations into paintings but also raises questions at the intersection of ideology, propaganda, and education. Liu invites viewers to think critically about the words and images that shape our collective identities, challenging us to reimagine them, a form of rewriting history.
