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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation, © Yu Youhan
Yu Youhan 余友涵
Chairman Mao in Discussion with the Peasants of Shaoshan 毛主席在韶山和農民交談
1999
This oil painting depicts Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin in a living room with a family. The figures’ faces are rendered in the same orange tones as the background, drawing attention to their frozen smiles. Floral motifs appear on the carpet, the sofa, and the subjects’ clothes, and pink and yellow flowers with green leaves seem to float in the space. This work is a revision of Yu Youhan’s 1991 painting of the same title, which was based on an official photograph of Mao visiting peasants in his home town of Shaoshan, Hunan Province. The 1999 painting was done for the cover of Time magazine and adds Deng and Jiang to the composition. Influenced by Andy Warhol and Richard Hamilton, Yu began his producing his Mao paintings in the late 1980s, shifting from his earlier abstract compositions with circles. The decorative imagery here is characteristic of these paintings, which combine the kitsch of pop art with propaganda imagery of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976).
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