Art and State

Mao Zedong’s “Yan’an Talks on Literature and Art” in 1942 pointed out the direction of art in China. Mao said that “all our literature and art are for the masses of the people, and in the first place for the workers, peasants and soldiers” (Excerpts from Quotations). Thus, the major goal of art—serving the proletariat—was defined. After the establishment of People’s Republic of China in 1949, artists responded to Mao’s thoughts and created artworks for common people. Traditional art especially guohua, whose target audience is the upper class, was remolded and not in popular, while new printed matters such as nianhua and woodblock prints prevailed nationwide. Depicting the model female worker alongside Mao, the new year’s poster Zhao Guilan at the Heroes Reception by Lin Gang indicates that the goal of art was serving people. During that historical period, the Communist Party and the proletariat were main subjects represented in a realistic manner in artworks and abstraction in European modern art was almost absent in China’s art world.

Socialism and proletarian heroism are primary themes in Socialism Realism. The subjects of such style are related to artists’ own experience, usually ordinary workers and peasants who are dauntless and strong. Quan Shanshi’s Unyielding heroism (1961), an oil painting depicted peasant revolutionaries to praise martyrdom for Communism. The figures were painted as well-muscle, self-sacrificing and the broad palette strokes also exemplify the socialist realistic manner.

The “cult of Kim” after 1953 was a way North Korean government used to elevate Kim Il-sung’s status and evoke “cult of personality”. Kim was represented in artworks including sculpture, painting and propaganda poster as a national hero and spiritual leader whose position was unshakable. After 1953, facing the Soviet-Korean dispute and the Sino-Korean dispute, the “cult of Kim” pushed the government rallied the people. Art was utilized to consolidate the “cult of Kim” in order to avoid internal dispute when the international tension was aggravating. However, the “cult of Kim” was so deeply rooted that it became rather Kim’s own weapon for his rule.