Great Criticism - M&M's 大批判 - M&M's

Creator(s)

Guang-Yi WANG 王广义

Preview

Date

1994

Format

Film

Materials

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

120 x 150 cm

Description

Amid a red background, a figure is rendered primarily with black and light yellow paints. The man is holding a giant, caricatured pen in his right hand. The figure, judging from his symbolic garments, form a representative image of Chinese Communism; or if inserting the image into its specific contexts, Cultural Revolution. At the picture's bottom left corner, a logo of American candy brand "M&M's" appears, integrating itself into the backdrop. At the composition's bottom right, the word "NO" is encased by a black, explosive text bubble. "Great Criticism" was an extended series WANG worked from 1990s to 2007. In 2007, WANG put a halt on the series, claiming that the series' success would distort and smudge the work's meanings. One major attempt of this "political pop" artwork was to liberate "art" from its exclusive, esoteric high throne, and to further avail it to general public. WANG in the work cited two of such practices in art trend -- across the globe -- "Cultural Revolution" propaganda art (in China) and Commercial Pop art (in the United States). A resonance of cross-cultural artistic movements is reflected in WANG's citations. (Wang, 王广义《大批判》系列作品, available on https://m.sohu.com/n/452112377/?wscrid=32576_3); see also (Wang, Artist Note: on "Great Criticism" 关于“大批判”的想法, 1996, available on ZHOU Document). (Jerry Wu'23).