Which is Earth? D, 1969|Mounted, framed and glazed, ink and color with collage on paper, dated 1969, signed Liu Guosong, with one artist's seal reading Liu Guosong. |30 1/4 x 61 1/4in (76.8 x 155.6cm)|劉國松 地球何許之? D 墨彩拼貼紙本 鏡框 1969年作ProvenanceLee Nordness Gallery, New YorkLaguna Beach Art Association, Laguna Beach, CA ExhibitedLaguna Beach Art Association, 1970Nordness Gallery, 1969Combining boldly-inked calligraphic brushstrokes, paint and collage, and then reducing the surface by removing long fibers from his own specially-made paper to leave dendritic patterns in white, Liu Guosong creates a composition that is cosmic and sublime, yet at the same time reduced to simple geometric forms--an arc and a sphere. These motifs define the artist's "Which is Earth?" series, the first in the his body of work--"Space". The paintings were inspired by the NASA missions, namely the Apollo 8 mission that produced the image "Earthrise" on December 24, 1968, and the 1969 moon landing the following July. "Which is Earth? D" painted in 1969 and on auction here, is one of the earliest in this successful series, although the artist continued to produce "Which is Earth?" paintings for the next five years. Although celestial bodies had rarely been the principal subject of traditional Chinese painting, cosmic principles have played a crucial role the Chinese artist's approach to the terrestrial landscape since the Song dynasty. In 1956, thirteen years prior to this paintings creation, Liu Guosong was a founder of the Fifth Moon Group, a modern painting society in Taiwan. Incorporating concepts from the Abstract Expressionism movement that evolved in New York City a decade before, members of the Fifth Moon group sought a sharp break from tradition. However viewing an exhibition of Song dynasty paintings in the early 1960's, Liu Guosong reached a turning point and thereafter sought to bring the tradition into the modern. The fusion of tradition and the modern would be a hallmark of the artist's style for years thereafter. "Which is Earth? D" was originally exhibited at the Lee Nordness Gallery in New York in 1969 and the Laguna Beach Gallery in 1970. An important venue for Liu Guosong, Laguna Beach was the site of the artist's first solo exhibition in North America several years earlier in 1966. "Which is Earth? D" is now publicly available in the first time in over 45 years.