German Version

Exhibition

Picturing Power:
Art and Propaganda in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

31.1.-28.2.2001 Universitätsmuseum Heidelberg

Completely Smash the Liu-Deng Counter-Revolutionary Line
Chedi fensui Liu Deng fandong luxian

Unknow artist
c. 1967, Hebei
Armed with revolutionary fervor and Mao’s Little Red Book, a worker descends from above to attack tiny figures of Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi. Liu Shaoqi, chairman of the Party during Mao’s temporary retirement in 1959, and Deng Xiaoping, who rose to power again in 1979, were both targets of a strong series of attacks in the early years of the Cultural Revolution. Through the initiative of the Central Academy of Fine Arts’ Red Guards and their magazine, Art Storm, Deng and Liu were demonized in the strongest terms. Artists who had previously lionized them were struggled against. Most of these paintings were done in the Soviet style, as traditional guohua paintings were partly the targets of attack. Liu and Deng were seen as supporters of outmoded, imperialistic guohua painting, as well as capitalist roaders who had opposed Mao’s Great Leap Forward.
Yiman Liu
Last modified: Sun Jun 24 10:55:21 CEST 2001