LUCY LIU TURNS US ON
An Erotic Side You’ve Never Seen
Actress Lucy Liu rose to fame playing Ling Woo on the hit TV series Ally McBeal. This was followed by starring roles in blockbuster films like Charlie’s Angels (and the sequel) and Kill Bill Vol. 1. She is now in her seventh and final season as Dr. Joan Watson on CBS’s Elementary. Before her success on the screen, Liu was an accomplished artist and still is. She’s been painting since 1993, but it’s her erotic art that has set the internet on fire.
To understand her approach to painting sexual themes, you need to understand its origin. Liu was inspired by Shunga, a Japanese artistic tradition. It emerged from early modern Japan, featuring graphic images of sexual pleasure, female sexuality and homosexuality. According to Liu’s website, she became intrigued by the overt sexual content of Shunga. She found it to be a stark contrast to her own cultural upbringing, in which sex was treated as a closely guarded secret.
Liu’s collection of Shunga includes large scale paintings depicting two women, embracing or entwined and kissing. Her interpretation of female intimacy has been applauded by the gay community, with images of her works being circulated across Twitter and Instagram.
Liu grew up in Queens, New York, in the Jackson Heights neighborhood. In an interview with Artsy, she talks about her early childhood, “I won’t say we were a conservative family, but we didn’t talk about sex, we never saw each other naked, there was no discussion what happens in the human body.”
The recent frenzy around Liu’s erotic paintings has revealed an artist that many didn’t know existed. She presented her work, in the past, under her Chinese name, Yu Ling. Her mediums stretch beyond painting to include photography, collages, embroidery, drawings and silkscreens. Last January, she presented her work “Unhomed Belongings” at the National Museum of Singapore. It was her first museum exhibit.
