Illustration:
ill. 5.81
Author:
Gudmundur ERRO (1932-)
Date:
2003
Genre:
painting, poster
Material:
internet file, colour; original source: colored lithograph, 59 x 45 cm
Source:
Gudmundur ERRO, Mao‘s Last Visit to Venice, 2003, Cultural Revolution Art Lithograph Portfolio, DACHS 2009 ERRO Mao, Heidelberg catalogue entry
Courtesy:
ERRO, Galleri GKM Siwert Bergström
Keywords:
Mao portrait, Mao goes to Anyuan, Pop art, parody, scholar´s gown, leader

Gudmundur ERRO: Young Mao at San Marco

MaoArt was attractive not just to Chinese artist. Both during the Cultural Revolution and more recently, the Mao Cult also had important international dimensions, too. During the Cultural Revolution this is evident in the proliferation of propaganda publications such as China Pictorial or Chinese Literature on the one hand, and receptive works such as Gerhard Richter's Mao (1968, ill. 5.31 b) and Andy Warhols Painting Mao (1972), on the other.

More recently, the international dimension of the cult finds its reflection in John Adams' Nixon in China (1987), or, more recently, in ever more numerous examples such as SungJun Huur's Mao Mosaic (1999), pop artist Gudmundur ERRO's Cultural Revolution Art Lithograph Portfolio which contains parodies of Chairman Mao goes to Anyuan and other famous paintings (ill. 5.81) and advertising. More than in earlier years, today’s international MaoArt appears to be driven first and foremost by commercial motives (and not by political idealism as in the 1960s and 70s), with old and artistic Mao memorabilia sold for record prices at Sothebys and new, rehatched Mao memorabilia at Shanghaitang.