This oil painting depicts six men at the seaside, posing with a spread of shellfish in the foreground. Except for one in white belted shorts or trousers, the men wear bathers of different colours, and some show signs of a tan. Their relaxed postures and direct gazes give the impression of a snapshot of friends on holiday or having a day out at the beach, enjoying a seafood lunch. A strong feeling of the ordinary and the familiar is a distinctive feature of Liu Xiaodong’s work, but his paintings are based on carefully planned and constructed compositions. Life models are painted only after a period of acquaintance and draw from detailed studies of their postures and complexions. Liu was greatly influenced by Lucian Freud’s portraits and seeks to portray the psychological depth of his subjects. Like many of Liu’s other paintings, the subjects here have distinctive expressions and positions that hint at individual personalities.
Liu Xiaodong (born 1963, Jinzhou) graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1988 and a Master of Fine Arts in 1995, and now holds a Professorship. He continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, from 1998 to 1999. He creates richly-coloured paintings that capture non-specific moments in the lives of common people and those at the periphery of society. Liu lives and works in Beijing.