Heading: (China – Poster art Collection, ‘Chairman Mao' )
Author:
Title: Collection of 20 Chinese political propaganda posters of the Cultural Revolution era, with photos or drawings of “Chairman Mao” Zedong
Place Published:
Publisher:
Date Published: Ca. 1966-1980
Description:

Most approximately 20 x 30". Originally issued during the Cultural Revolution 1966-1976 and soon after Mao's death in 1976,. Once plentiful in China, these are now politically unpopular and accordingly becoming scarce. (Elsewhere in this sale, please see another collection of Cultural Revolution posters with special propaganda themes).

The images show Mao as a young man of 28 in the birth year of the Chinese Communist Party; in various poses with the (later disgraced) Lin Piao, Liu Shao-chi, Chou En-lai, and his successor Hua Guofeng; visiting a school in his hometown; in a bath robe after a river swim (captioned with his poem, "Swimming"); and inspecting the Cultural Revolution Army. The drawings,which incorporate Mao images, include an Orwellian depiction of beaming students in regimented rows, reading Mao's little Red Book, and a march of Red Guard workers and farmers through Shanghai. The propaganda captions declare: "Our great Leader and Teacher", the "Reddest Sun in our hearts", will live a million years and never die; at least, his thoughts will shine forever. Some posters are dedicated to Families of Martyrs of the Revolution and Disabled Veterans and some credited to the Beijing City Revolutionary Committee. The most curious is an allusion to a famous Chinese legend about a supposedly stupid man who worked "day and night" shifting dirt to move a mountain, the moral being that great tasks could be accomplished slowly, passed on to future generations.