How Chinese art became political

Chairman Mao died in 1976. His death also marked the end of the Cultural Revolution. In the mid-1980s, modern artists started experimenting with the figure of Mao in their imagery - which at that time was still associated with considerable risks. Inspired by Andy Warhol's work, Ai Weiwei approached China's difficult relationship with Mao, the icon of the Cultural Revolution, in his "Mao Images."

Geng Jianyi (born 1962) was one of the big avant-garde names in China's modern art scene. He was part of one of the 179 artists' groups that formed during the 1980s. For his thesis, he painted not this but another couple, but the painting was rejected as being too "cold," as it did not correspond to the positive image of the socialist person that the regime wanted to perpetuate. Geng died in 2017.

Wang Guangyi (born 1957), was part of the "Group of the North" in the late 1980s, a group that focused extensively on Western philosophy writings. With his skilful combination of propaganda art from the Cultural Revolution with Pop Art aesthetics, his works became known as "Political Pop". "Great Criticism" is his best-known and -paradoxically - most commercially successful series.

Yue Minjun (born 1962) is also considered as a leader in China's avant-garde movement. He has long become one of those Chinese stars featured at international auctions. One can recognize his own facial features in his signature laughing grimaces. After the events on Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, his "Cynical Realism" approach helped shape the direction of the socio-critical artist movement.

Born in 1963, painter and woodcutter Fang Lijun was featured at the groundbreaking exhibition "China Avant-Garde" in Beijing in 1989. He later developed his trademark style with his bald men against the backdrop of the sea or the sky. His imagery became the epitome of a new awakening in Chinese art. His works show people looking bored and angry at the same time - a reflection on Chinese society.

"The Great Chairman" shakes hands with his doppelganger in this work by Feng Mengbo. Feng was born in Beijing in 1966, when the Cultural Revolution started. Even as a student, the video and installation artist used his imagery to deal in a subversive manner with China's revolutionary idol. Feng has continued to recycle images from the Mao era in his videos and animations.

Zeng Fanzhis' painting "The Last Supper" measures four meters in width and has fetched a record sum of $23.3 million at an auction for Asian art in Hong Kong in 2013. In Zeng's work, which is modeled after Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, Jesus' disciples have all been replaced with pioneers wearing red scarves. Only "Judas" is seen wear a western tie - a reference to China's turn to capitalism.

Cao Fei is one of China's most recognized media artists, who is always represented in important international exhibitions on Chinese art. Her works often present a subjective mixture of fiction and documentation. This is how she addresses the fast pace of urban life in China, while also highlighting the impact of the latest technologies on people as well as their social consequences.

Huang Yongping (born 1954), is one of the earliest artists of the Chinese avant-garde. In 1986, he co-founded the group "Xiamen Dada", whose members were known for publicly burning their paintings after exhibitions. In 1989, he was one of the first Chinese artists to take part in an art show in France at the Centre Pompidou. After June 4, 1989, he stayed in Paris, where he still lives to this day.

Wang Renzheng a.k.a. "Nut Brother" spent 100 days in Beijing in 2015 to collect the smog-related dust particles from the air using an industrial vacuum cleaner. The artist from Shenzhen later mixed the particles with clay and baked this mixtures in a factory to form bricks. Air pollution at your fingertips - that is his commentary on the relationship between man and nature.