I just watched a documentary about Mao Zedong and it made me remember an illustrated book I loved as a child, and that has actually survived in an old box. The mesmerizing richness of detail and the precise depiction of man and machine exerted a great fascination on me. So my infant self back then was proof of the effectiveness of this nonverbal visual propaganda.
Huxian Peasant Paintings are a product of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, first appearing during the Great Leap Forward in 1958. Ostensibly painted by amateur worker-peasant-soldier artists, they depict idealized scenes of the thriving socialist countryside. The paintings were reproduced in large numbers and distributed as posters for the masses. Further evidence has shown that the amateur artists were in fact given detailed training by professional artists under the guidance of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In contrast to the portrayed enthusiastic people living in abundance, Mao’s rule brought the most devastating famine in human history upon his people and his 27-year reign was marked by immeasurable suffering that has traumatized the Chinese people to this day.
Life as reflected in works of literature and art can and ought to be on a higher plane, more intense, more concentrated, more typical, nearer the ideal, and therefore more universal than actual everyday life.Chairman Mao
From the book:
Peasant Paintings from Huhsien County
Compiled by the People’s Republic of China
Peking, 1974
Here are some propaganda photographs from the years 1974-1977, featuring ‘amateur artists’ among workers, soldiers and peasants.
