NEW YORK, NY.- An important Realism masterwork, Interval, 1999 by artist Lui Liu — painted just a few years after the celebrated Chinese artist immigrated to Canada — will be included in Heritage Auctions' Nov. 11 Modern & Contemporary Art Auction in New York. Demand for the artist's work has soared in recent years, as his masterful technique continues to push the boundaries of the potential of Realist painting within the Surrealist movement.

"Lui Liu's unique perspective is thought-provoking and his paint quality is masterful," said Ed Beardsley, Vice President of Fine Art at Heritage Auctions. "There is no question why his work has developed broad, international appeal and we have set several auction records reaching well into the six figures."

Interval, 1999, was purchased directly from the artist and has remained in the same private Texas collection. Like his later works recently offered at Heritage, Liu never fails in his ability to give life to his dreams when presenting his surreal scenarios to the stage of the canvas. In Interval, three women stare directly at whoever is staring back at them in their silky night clothes clinging to their bodies, creating a combined sense of movement and harmonious quality, comparable to the instruments that they may (or may not) have been playing before they were welcomed by their onlooker.

Like the title of the painting suggests, Liu situates these three bodies in varying movements as a metaphor, in which each individual woman strikes a new pose just as a musical instrument strikes a new chord, the difference being that of an interval.

"Similar to how an interval is often difficult to discern while one is listening to music, so are the differences between dreams and reality when one is dreaming," Beardsley said, referring to Liu's attraction to dream-like allegory. "This early work is an example of why the world is continually attracted to Liu's incredible imagination and his stunningly surreal works of art."

Interval, 1999, will be offered with a $50,000-$70,000 estimate in Heritage Auctions' Nov. 11 Modern & Contemporary Art Auction in New York.