Souri

Souri depicts the back view of a Balinese dancer who is in the midst of practising her art. In costume and adorned with beautiful accessories, she kneels, holding a pink fan in her right hand as her left palm extends down and outwards; a gesture typical of Balinese dance. Liu Kang made a pastel sketch of this dancer during a seminal trip to Bali in 1952, and referred to it for this oil painting, created a year later, in Singapore. He faithfully translated details he had recorded when he saw the dancer, such as the headdress and intricate patterns of the fabric. However, he also introduced elements absent from the original sketch, for example by setting the painting within a temple courtyard. The Bali trip focused Liu Kang’s attention on Southeast Asian culture as a subject matter in painting, and the large number of sketches and paintings he produced following the trip reflect a level of richness in his motifs and patterns rarely seen in his earlier works.