Download This exhibition on Poster Art of Modern China: 1913 – 1997 at the

INTRODUCTION TO EXHIBITION ON POSTER ART OF MODERN CHINA
RUNNING AT ADAM HOUSE, EDINBURGH FROM 6TH JUNE TO 12TH JULY 2014.
This exhibition on Poster Art of Modern China: 1913 – 1997 at the University of
Edinburgh is a first in many respects: it covers a broad spectrum of this art form
starting in the Republican period (1911-1949); includes highest quality exhibits,
many of which are being displayed for the first time; and is the biggest exhibition of
its kind ever displayed in the UK. The exhibition offers visitors the chance not only
to appreciate the aesthetic content of these posters but also to gain some
understanding into the history of China in the last century.
The posters presented are on loan from the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre,
founded, directed, and curated by Yang Peiming, which is today the largest
collection of Chinese poster art comprising more than 5000 items. Poster Art has a
long history in modern China, serving different purposes - to enlighten, to entertain,
to educate, or to make money. The exhibition aims to present this variety
highlighting the artistic qualities of poster art production.
The earliest poster on display is a highly decorative advertising poster created in
1913. Styled as a Shanghai calendar poster, and featuring the latest female fashion
(the model wearing a western style high collar dress) this poster is an example of a
very stylized and new representation of female beauty. The newest poster, featuring
Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, was created in 1997. Very shortly after, most prints
were reclaimed or recycled, so although this is the most recent poster of the
exhibition, this poster is in fact very rare. The exhibition also features covers from a
very special magazine Modern Sketch from the 1930s, along with highly expressive
woodcut posters issued by the National government during the Anti-Japanese War.
During the first three decades of the Maoist Era (1949-1976), propaganda posters had
their peak in China, hence this era provides the majority of exhibits.
Labelled as "propaganda" these posters still present a multitude of styles and artistic
creativity with wide ranging impact. Posters were a widespread, accessible and
affordable art, which enjoyed great popularity among the people, despite their often
seemingly shallow and simplistic political messages. The idea that literature and arts
should also serve an educational purpose and raise the moral constitution of the
reader or viewer was not new in China, prevailing many centuries before poster art
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emerged. The main purpose of propaganda is to persuade, involve, and engage. This
means, the didactic function of art or propaganda can only be fulfilled in a process of
communication between the creator and the viewer. For this reason core political
messages have to be accompanied by images, ideas or issues important, relevant and
sympathetic to the viewer. They also need to be recognisable and consistent,
drawing on elements of a shared culture, while introducing new elements in a
constant process of communication. At the same time, propaganda art is certainly no
innocent affair. In times of high political pressure or national crisis, through
agitation and mobilisation, the posters can incite discrimination, hatred, and
violence against those labelled as "enemies" of the time – vulnerable victims, who
were also viewers of such posters. By definition, these posters are not pure art or "art
for art's sake" , but in their entirety they cover the whole scale from nearly pure
artistic creativity to centrally directed conformity.
The posters exhibited reflect this variety of content, messages, and new and old
elements in terms of style and artistic influences: European War Time Posters;
Nazi Propaganda; Expressionism or Art Nouveau; Japanese and Chinese traditional
arts; contemporaneous comics and cartoons; as well as the influence of the historical
circumstances under which they appeared.
Calendar posters first appeared in China in the early 20th century. They enjoyed
great popularity, being sold on the streets or given out by commercial firms. As
everywhere in the world of advertising, many of them featured women. Art students
returning from Europe increasingly adapted elements of Art Deco, prevalent in
European advertising of the time. Woodblock paper prints on the other hand had
been produced and circulated in China since the 7th century, first appearing as mass
productions of Buddhist devotional art or in book illustrations. In the 1930s the
Leftist movement rediscovered this artistic technique for propaganda purposes
linking up with the global woodcut movement, particularly during the AntiJapanese War (1937-45). With the support of China's most famous writer, Lu Xun, in
the 1930s, woodcut art further developed in the "liberated areas" controlled by the
Communists during the Civil War, and hence strongly influenced further
propaganda posters throughout the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).
In the early years after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, Mao Zedong
called for a modern New Year's Picture Movement. Famous artists from across the
nation joined in the production of modern New Year's pictures and touring exhibits
made this Movement widely known. The modern New Year's pictures borrowed the
styles of traditional folk art in order to promote new society and new thought. Main
themes of the propaganda posters of this time were "Celebrate New China", "Fight
America and Support North Korea", and "Land Reform". According to Jiang Feng
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(1910-1982), who played an important role in art circles at the time, there were more
than 800 kinds of New Year's pictures in China, (of which about 300 are collected in
the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center). More than 10 kinds are presented in
this exhibition, including works from the Hangzhou School of Art (the famous
impressionist artist Lin Fengmian (1900-1991) being its former principal) and Shen
Roujian (1919-1998), an artist from the “liberated areas” under Communist control.
Propaganda posters were also strongly influenced by Soviet Union artists and the
concept of Socialist Realism, after many students, who had studied art in Russia
during the early years after the founding of the People's Republic, returned to
China. The purpose of these posters was to spread Communist political views, call
for participation in various political movements and campaigns, and to propagate
correct behaviour. Mao Zedong, being both a poet, and a calligrapher, not only
recognized the value of propaganda, but was also himself a practitioner of
propaganda art. He also redefined the concept of Socialist Realism as a combination
of "revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism", emphasizing the
visionary, the positive, the triumphant and in this sense the "romantic". This
romantic spirit is expressed in the smiles, visionary looks, bucolic landscapes and
expressions of happiness, more often reflecting desires for a better future than actual
realities. The posters likewise convey glimpses into the hardships, anxieties and
pressures of the times. As such these posters become a benchmark to understand the
ever-changing and turbulent times the people enjoyed or endured, and provide a
unique viewpoint to decipher the real conditions of a particular era.
1949 to 1979 was the peak period of creativity of Chinese propaganda posters.
These three decades of the Mao Zedong era can be subdivided into three main
periods and themes: the early years after the founding of the People's Republic
(1949-57); the Great Leap Forward (1958-61) and the Cold War; the Cultural
Revolution and Red Guards Movement (1966-76). During these periods, political
struggles became increasingly fierce, involving increasingly violent social struggles
too, which are reflected in the tense, and at times, brutal language and imagery.
Many of the artists creating posters during the Maoist period had been well known
artists, were employed in the commercial sector during the Republican period (19111949), or were newly recruited talent from most reputable art schools. Some had
already worked for the Communist party during the civil war. Their diverse
backgrounds left their mark on the posters in different styles and techniques, using
for example, graphic powder or brush pens for new artistic effects. During the
Cultural Revolution, people turned to propaganda art, as this was the only possible
route of artistic creation. Some of the most prominent and typical propaganda artists
were students of one of China's most renowned painters of the modern period, Xu
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Beihong (1895-1953). One example is one of the most famous and prolific
propaganda artists Ha Qiongwen (1925-2012), several million copies of whose
posters were disseminated and praised by many for their artistic quality. His pieces
on display at this exhibition feature his original signature, which render them
particularly unique and precious. Ha is also an example of those artists who carried
on with his work through the Cultural Revolution (when he was fiercely attacked)
into the 1990s.
Since the late 1950s China has been through decades of political struggle and major
campaigns against enemies within society, for which the Anti-Rightist movement
(1957-1958) marked the turning point. During this time hundreds of thousands of
intellectuals were accused and persecuted. The following Great Leap Forward was a
period of further excessive political and economic ambition. Mao Zedong envisioned
achieving the stage of Communism in a single great leap, by mobilising the masses
and transforming the mainly agrarian based country through rapid rural
industrialisation. Precipitated collectivisation, economic mismanagement and
natural disasters resulted the in Great Famine (1958-1961) costing tens of millions of
people their lives. Yet the posters displayed rich harvests, fat and highly
reproductive pigs and celebrations of success of the campaign, carrying slogans like
"One bumper harvest after another", "One Great Leap followed by the next", "Catch
up with or Surpass England within 15 years".
During this period, Chinese propaganda artists introduced new forms of technical
skills, as represented by the artist Ha Qiongwen. Adopting traditional folk art
techniques to more closely reflect rural life, various paintings show gigantic corn,
rice paddies, and mountains of cotton, which today look absurd, and innocent
happy faces with rosy cheeks, which seen against the background appear almost
cynical. Yet the Great Leap Forward propaganda has also to be seen in the context of
the tension of the Cold War between the East and the West. Apart from Chinese
Anti-imperialist and Anti-American posters produced to expose the enemy in
cartoon style, the excessive exaggerations of Great Leap Forward posters were also
meant to reveal the true superiority of China over capitalist countries.
The Cultural Revolution was another peak period for Chinese propaganda posters,
and these are probably the most widely known to audiences abroad. The Cultural
Revolution was the most turbulent period of recent Chinese history. Countless
people organised themselves in factions to produce and disseminate posters and Big
Character posters, which swept across the nation like a storm. Mao as the Great
Leader or Great Helmsman became the most prominent and prevalent motif, as the
result of a fanatical personality cult. By showing him rising above lakes and rivers,
artists portrayed him as a red sun, shining upon the people turning towards him like
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sunflowers — a style almost reminiscent of symbolism. Every piece of work was to
be "tall, big, comprehensive" and "red, light, bright". Another main trend in the
propaganda art of this time was the revival of red and black woodcuts made by
young art school students. Main features were the Red Guard Movement, class
struggle, or the huge campaign to send hundreds of thousand young students to the
countryside to learn from the peasants. The visual language became highly coded,
operating mainly with binary opposites of good/bad, light/dark, hero/villain etc.
Under the extreme political pressure caused by countless campaigns with changing
victims and targets, any political mistakes or incorrect messages could be fatal for
the artists. For that reason, most posters of the period were meticulously crafted and
published by collectives, schools, and groups, rather than signed by individual
artists. In terms of quantity of production, the Cultural Revolution was certainly the
climax of Chinese propaganda posters, yet the same time, with their often extremely
aggressive nature, it also induced the end of propaganda poster production in
China.
After the Cultural Revolution, the "Opening and Reform" policy introduced by
Deng Xiaoping gradually replaced the planned economy with a market economy.
Artistic creation again became more diverse, and modern art practice started to
flourish again. Socialist realism or its Chinese variants ceased to be the one and only
dominant art form. As modernisation and stabilisation became the main projects of
the newly formed government, class struggle and class background were abandoned
as social concepts. This time saw the end of Big Character posters, including
propaganda posters as an expression of political struggle and mobilisation vehicle
for campaigns. Posters of the Cultural Revolution – now called Ultra-Leftist
propaganda art – were recollected and recycled. The role of propaganda was to
support the new government by propagating positive values. In a sense, as there
were no obvious enemies to target, either within society or in the outside world,
propaganda posters lost one of their crucial functions. In the 21st century, marketing
strategies and commercialised advertising replaced straightforward political
propaganda, with obviously less artistic flavour and ambition. Thus posters as a
formerly ubiquitous mass art, decorating public streets and people's homes, have
become rare items for individual collectors.
Yang Peiming and Natascha Gentz
April 2014
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