Mao as a culture Icon in Contemporary Art

The Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong and his legacy has knowledgeable the arts of several contemporary Chinese artists. Mao’s image dominated each public and private spheres during the Cultural Revolution, and continued to resonate in people’s mind. He successfully led China through transformation and revolution in half a century. However, it is ironical that Mao’s iconic image introduced a way through which artists could express nostalgia and critique in China’s past. Thus, at some stage in the 1980s and 90s, the image of Mao was used in speaking the ideas of contemporary artists in a manner that could no longer be allowed during the Cultural Revolution. To properly comprehend the current situation, it is crucial to revisit the role of art in the Cultural Revolution period. Cultural Revolution occurred between 1966 and 1976, and is also referred to as ten lost years. For artistic expression and growth, the period is usually regarded as a burden of haunting traumas (Andrews and Kuiyi 207).Chairman Mao’s images were vital propaganda tools during the Cultural Revolution. The Liu Chunhua’s work “Chairman Mao goes to Anyuan” was created for the propaganda exhibition. The most popular painting in the exhibition was “Chairman Mao goes to Anyuan” that generated a sense of liking Mao that was significant to the development of his authority and his cult of personality. Liu Chunhua attended the Central Academy of Crafts and Arts and was a Red Guard art student. Therefore, he was one of the artists were expected to create and participate in the art to promote the Communist Party. In 1968, the painting was published in the Red Flag Journal as a model work. The People’s Liberation Army Daily, as well as the People’s Daily, also published the work (Yan 99).“Chairman Mao goes to Anyuan” shows Mao at the coal mine the Anyuan mine is significant since it is where Mao was supposed to have started the 1921 workers movement. Liu Chunhua’s work was intended to portray Mao as a hero of Cultural Revolution as well as to undermine Liu Shaoqi who was the previous leader. In the painting, the young and energetic Mao walks to a top of a mountain. Mao stands in a dominant pose because of his central position. Moreover, he seems to be standing on top of the world, with a huge mountain range extending behind him. Mao looks godlike, in front of the dramatic landscape which was a symbolic representation of the chairman. Liu Chunhua reflected the great image of Mao walking like a glorious sunrise with infinite hopes. The painting was flawless as a piece of propaganda as it showed power on Mao’s leadership (Yang and Suchan 25).Mao’s portraits became omnipresent in China during the Cultural Revolution with approximately 2.2 billion in circulation. In most cases, the portraits depicted Chairman Mao in front of a rising sun symbolizing the leadership in him. Mao Zedong, replaced the space left after the Red Guard eliminated traditional religion, festivals, and customs. He became a godlike figure because he dominated the private and public sphere communicating and representing the ideology to the public and providing the opportunity to learn about them. Numerous artists painted his portraits with a sense of awe and reverence as Mao was a great leader to them, and they usually thought that by painting him, they were promoting education to the masses. Therefore, Chairman Mao was an important part of the personal identity as well as a symbolic figure for the Identity of China in the Cultural Revolution (Jiang 29).In 1976, Cultural Revolution came to an end after the dissolution of the Gang of Four and the death of its creator. The future of the Chinese art became ambiguous after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Despite art remaining to control the state, artists started testing the boundaries. In 1979, private art groups and exhibitions began to emerge. After Mao’s death, the socialist realism used by Cultural Revolution artists continued to be the preferred style, and it was referred to as “new realism.” The Lou Zhongli’s work named as “Father” is portrayed according to with the artistic parameters and it was comparable to the “red, smooth, and luminescent” portraits by Mao. The portrait is a painting that was meant to depict an aged peasant man. The face of the man is pointed at the viewer through shaded eyes while holding a bowl appearing to contain tea. Furthermore, his face covers about three-quarters of the canvas and the remaining part consist of the bowl and the upper body. In the Cultural Revolution period, large-scale portraits like this one were used to portray a supreme leader like Chairman Mao Zedong, who was regarded as the father of revolutionary China. The scale and composition of the art work were inspired by Chuck Close an American painter who used photo-realism. In the painting, the tattered clothing and the dirt in man’s fingernails, shows the viewer the poor peasant and the environment in which he lives and works. His skin is wrinkled and leathery, and the face looks worn. Lou Zhongli depicts that a peasant who works every day tirelessly for the good of the nation is the real Father of China. The artist has criticized Mao by replacing him with a rural father in the Chinese history and society (Yang and Suchan 31).Artists started criticizing the Chairman years after Mao died. The ideas concerning art continued to change in China and expanded enormously. The “85 Art Movement” demanded autonomy in the private sphere, rebellion against authoritarianism, and expressions of personal views. By 1986, all kinds of modern arts were observed in China when the ideals of the movement were actualized. Several scholars assert that 1985 marked the beginning of the contemporary art in China. Mao fever was witnessed during the late 1980s and 1990s forming a nostalgia of Mao Zedong’s revolutionary era. Li Shan was a Cultural Revolution artist during his twenties and thirties as he spent most of his time painting portraits of the Chairman. In Li’s painting Chairman Mao is drawn facing the viewer in a side-on position with only his shoulders and head being the visible parts. This representation of the chairman Mao Zedong illustrates the youthful idealism of the artistic work and makes the face of the Chairman smooth to the extent of almost losing the human character. In the same painting, Mao’s face is shaded by a hot pink hue, and he also has a cap that is blue-grey. The three-dimensional figure, unnatural and contrasting colors pink and blue as well as the flat background provides the iconic image an ironic light. The reason why it is ironic is that it turns that the adoration they inspired and the propagandist’s ideals to nothing more than a decoration with bright colors of fabric design and folk art. This artistic work was part of the Political Pop movement, and Li was a founder. Li Shan was part of the “Mao Fever” phenomenon years following the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The images of the Chairman Mao Zedong started re-emerging in a nostalgic national craze. To several artists of the Political Pop movement, the Chairman’s images was a representation of popular discontent with the modern government, and of nostalgia for a revolutionary past (Andrews 384).“The Way to the East” by Wang Xingwei is parallel to “Chairman Mao goes to Anyuan” work by Liu Chinhua. The artistic work integrates the elements of Liu’s iconic painting that are easily recognizable to the viewer such as clouds in the blue sky and mountain landscape. Wang is trying to establish an easy visual where emotional associations can be contested. However, the main difference between the two paintings is that the image is facing away from the viewer. The man in the painting is wearing a Western-style suit with a mustard yellow shirt. The man holds a jacket in his arm and a pink umbrella. Wang has employed an effective use of autonomy since it gives the viewer an interpretive power. The artist questions why one person could be worshipped as a god as he presents the hilarity of Chairman Mao’s cult of personality. The experience of China by artists as it was struggling to keep up with the West and the economic reform is what compelled Xingwei’s work. Wang is trying to find a way forward for the modern Chinese art and China as can be seen in “The Way to the East.” By portraying a man moving away from the viewer, the artist presents a sense of leaving the past life and moving on (Weller 67).ConclusionMemory helps in the interpretation of the world and reflection is significant in moving forward. Decades after his death, Mao Zedong continues to be one of the greatest figures in the history of China as well as being a major subject of the contemporary artists. Modern artists of the post-Mao period are visual recorders responsible for depicting the legacy of Mao Zedong with a combination of nostalgia and critic for his revolutionary era. Li Shan, Luo Zhongli, and Wang Xingwei are artists who transformed Mao’s iconic status into simple images to viewers. Luo Zhongli provides an intimate and realist way of portraying the truth of Cultural Revolution and the contemporary critic of Mao by comparing him with the image of an aged peasant man. On the other hand, Li Shan sensually portrays Chairman Mao to reveal the connection between sex appeal and political power concerning his feelings of sexual liberation in the Cultural Revolution era. Wang Xingwei artistic work asserts the importance of the past was informing the present and the future. The works of these three artists in representing Mao Zedong and his legacy epitomize the importance he had in informing and transforming the Chinese culture. Chairman Mao Zedong was a great leader who strongly led China towards modernity.Works CitedAndrews, Julia and Kuiyi Shen. “Art after Mao” in The Art of Modern China (Berkeley: University of California Press, (2012): 207Andrews, Julia. “The Transition to Artistic Democracy” in Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic on China, (Berkeley: University of California Press, (1994) 384Jiang Jiehong, eds. Burden or Legacy: From the Chinese Cultural Revolution to Contemporary Art (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, (2007): 29Weller, Robert P. Discovering nature: Globalization and environmental culture in China and Taiwan. Cambridge University Press, (2006):56-71Yan Shanchun . “Painting Mao” in Art and China’s Revolution, edited by Melissa Chiu and Zheng Sheng Tian, (New Haven: Yale University Press, (2008): 99Yang, Guey-Meei, and Tom Suchan. "The cultural revolution and contemporary Chinese art." Art Education 62.6 (2009): 25-32.