Liu Ye Book Painting No. 27 (Franz Kafka, Amerika, Kurt Wolff Verlag, Muenchen, 1927), 2019

The work is from the Liu Ye's series of paintings begun in 2013, depicting books as central subject: almost completely filling the picture plane, the rectangular cover echo the shape of the canvas. The book in Book Painting No. 27 is depicted closed, placed on a flat surface. The painting depicts Franz Kafka's novel Amerika, also known as The Man Who Disappeared. The work reproduces the cover of the novel's first edition published by Munich-based publisher Kurt Wollf Verlag in 1927. Reading plays a particularly important role in the artist's biography: his father was a graphic designer and illustrator of children's books and Liu Ye has frequently spoken about his great interest in both Eastern and Western literature as a child.