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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation, © Wang Guangyi
On View
West Gallery Annex
Wang Guangyi 王廣義
Great Criticism: Chanel 大批判：香奈兒
2001
This oil painting consists of two canvases, depicting two identical pairs of smiling figures in yellow. These revolutionary figures, which evoke propaganda produced during the Cultural Revolution in China (1966–1976), each hold a copy of the Little Red Book of quotations from Mao in their left hand and salute with their right. The text ‘Chanel’ occupies the upper centre against a red-and-white striped background, and ‘No 5’ appears at the bottom left. The painting is part of Wang Guangyi’s Great Criticism series. He juxtaposes images from the Cultural Revolution and Western advertising, building on his earlier paintings that appropriate Western historical figures. This series examines the complex nature of modern Chinese identity in a rapidly changing political and social climate, and Wang uses the symbols of consumerism to question its place in contemporary Chinese society. The saluting revolutionaries and text create an incongruous image of idealised socialist figures celebrating a world-famous French fragrance. With this series, Wang become recognised as a primary figure of the Political Pop movement in China in the 1990s, which merged the aesthetics of American pop art and Chinese socialist propaganda.
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