The Cultural Revolution and Contemporary Chinese Art

I read a great educational article about the Chinese Cultural Revolution and how it affected three contemporary artists Lou Zhongli, Xu Bing, and Wang Guangyi. Supposedly, after the revolution, artists were allowed greater liberty in their work as long as it "supported modernization and did not subvert the goals of the Communist Party" (26).

Luo Zhongli
Zhongli became associated with Rustic Realism, a painting movement depicting rural life more candidly, during the 1980s. This type of painting maintained traditional realism and gave attention to the peasantry, yet broke away from the idealization of Maoist propaganda.

Luo Zhongli, Father, 1980

Xu Bing
After the revolution, Chinese artists gained access to foreign art styles an education. Bing began to incorporate conceptual thinking and installation with traditional and distinctly Chinese art forms like printing.

Xu Bing, Book from the Sky, 1987-91

Wang Guangyi
Guangyi developed Political Pop Art during the 1990s having been inspired by Andy Warhol. By combining symbols of Western advertising with political figures and slogans, he reveals similarities between advertising and propaganda.

Wang Guangyi, Great Criticism: CocaCola, 1993

And of course, we may be more familiar with Ai Weiwei's blatantly subversive art, which has thrown him into a lot of trouble with the Chinese government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnXj5-SNI34

Yang, Guey-Meei and Tom Suchan. Cultural Revolution and Chinese Art. Art Education. Nov. 2009. 25-32