Zhou Yan Contemporary Chinese Art Archive 周彦当代中国艺术档案
Preview
![image preview](https://digital.kenyon.edu/zhou/1290/preview.jpg)
Date
1992
Format
Film
Materials
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
120 x 150 cm
Description
Looming in the red-yellow background are three male figures, whose appearances are only implied by light grey (or green) outlines. The figures together hold a giant red book in hand -- judging from the work's theme, as well as the figures' symbolic identity, the book could be a litterature of the Chinese Cultural Revolution period. Below the figures, the name of the entire work series, 大批判 (Great Criticism), appears. "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).