Slippers

The early proponents of modern art on the Malay Peninsula (present-day Malaysia and Singapore) were mainly of Chinese descent. Liu Kang is one of the representative painters of this period and has been a leading figure in pre- and post-World War II regional painting circles. His unique painting style uses Chinese painting-style ink lines and does not copy modern western art. "Slippers" was created during Liu's years in Paris, after he had finished his art study in Shanghai and had set out to find his own unique forms and style in Paris. Here Liu has placed an ordinary household item, a pair of slippers, amidst a Matisse-like decorative flatter composition and palette. The combination of this decorative form and color with his blurred, smudged black ink line effect allowed him to create his fusion of modern western art forms with a Chinese aesthetic sensibility.