"On the Making of a Pop Icon: 'Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan' and Contemporary Chinese Art": A talk by Tang Xiaobing October 29, 2009

Upon its creation by a young art student at the height of the Cultural Revolution, the oil painting Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan (1967) was hailed as exemplary revolutionary art. With over 900 million copies printed for circulation shortly after, the painting remains arguably the best-known representation of Mao and has acquired an iconic status. In this lecture, Xiaobing Tang will reconstruct the making of this richly symbolic image and its tumultuous reception. He will then discuss a series of revisions that contemporary Chinese artists have made of the historical painting. The fate of this visual icon offers a good opportunity to reflect on the many changes in Chinese society and culture.

Tang Xiaobing is Helmut F. Stern Professor of Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. Most recently, he is the author of Origins of the Chinese Avant-garde: The Modern Woodcut Movement (2008) and Chinese Modern: The Heroic and the Quotidian (2000).

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu/thursdayscalf09.php