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毛泽东的制像研究(提要)＊
严善錞
毛泽东是二十世纪的中国伟人，也被认为是“天才”、“红太阳”和“圣人”。
对于毛泽东的生平和他的思想研究，海内外现在已有大量的成果，其中尤以中央文献出版社出版的书籍最为严肃，有相当的价值。但是，对毛泽东的图像研究基本上还停留在图片的搜集、整理、出版阶段，没有进入到对其图像的来源、形式的发展及意义的分析层面。
本文主要是通过有限的美术作品，来尝试对毛泽东形象的创作的初步研究，也可以说想简单地勾勒下一毛泽东的制像史。
一、 分期
毛泽东肖像的创作，大致可分为四个时期。这四个时期与我们现行的党史分期基本相近。第一期是三十年代初至1950年；第二期是1950年至1966年；第三期是1966年至1976年，即十年文革；第四期是改革开放以后。
1，第一期
毛泽东形象的创作以实用的为主，如书的封面，报章刊头，会堂布置，游行先导以及邮票等。在形式上以木刻居多，这一方面是由于战时物质条件所限，另一方面也与鲁迅倡导的新兴木刻有关。我们从现在正规出版物中发现的最早的毛泽东的画像，是刊于1933年红色中华出版的《革命画集》中的《毛泽东》（图1）。从画面的明暗处理手法可以看出，它显然是来自照片而非写生。
总体来说，这一时期毛泽东的形象较粗略，少修饰，给人只是一种一般的群众领袖、甚至可以说是游击战争领袖的印象。这一时期的毛泽东像的制作基本处于一种自发的状态，在一些重要的活动期间，中央虽然也有过组织创作，但没有形成规模，也没有固定的部门和人员来负责，即便是在延安的鲁艺，情况也基本如此。此期较有代表性的作品有沃查的木刻《红星照耀中国》（30年代晚期，图2），王式廓的套色木刻《毛主席像》（1942年，图3），石鲁的套色木刻《群英会》（1946年，图4）。
2，第二期
中华人民共和国成立后，毛泽东肖像的创作、尤其是几幅重要的标准像创作，都由中宣部直接负责[i]，画中的毛泽东已开始显示出大国领袖和伟人的风范，庄重、威严又和蔼可亲，并给人以一种慈祥的感觉。与此同时，中央和不少地方的美术机构也成立了革命历史画创作的委员会。在这一过程中，出现了大量的反映毛泽东革命事迹的主题性绘画。这些作品，大多是取材于特定的生活场景，毛泽东虽然居于较中心位置，但与群众关系亲近，形象也较朴实。画家大多是在借鉴照片的基础上有所发挥，形式上主要是受苏联领袖画的影响。中国革命博物馆和中国人民革命军事博物馆的开馆陈列，典型地反映了这一时期的毛泽东题材的绘画创作的面貌。[ii] 值得一提的是，在五十年代末，中国的油画家开始在领袖画中探索民族化的风格，如罗工柳的油画《毛主席在井冈山》（1959年，图5），而国画家也把中国画的革新课题带进了领袖画的创作中，如石鲁的国画《转战陕北》（1959年，图6）。此期较有代表性的作品有王朝闻的浮雕《毛主席像》（1950年，图7），罗工柳的油画《毛主席在延安干部会议上作整风报告》（1951年，图8），靳尚谊的油画《毛主席在十二月会议上》（1961年，图9），李琦的国画《主席走遍全国》（1960年，图10），蔡亮的油画《贫农的儿子》（1964年，图11），彭彬的油画《雄关漫道真如铁》（1965年，图12）。
3，第三期
此期又可分为前后两个阶段。前一阶段是66至69年。由于急切的造神需要，毛泽东像的制作出现了泛滥的局面，虽然这一运动是由中央文革小组授意发起的，但创作的组织和宣传则基本上群众自发的。这一阶段的艺术质量优劣悬殊，毛泽东的形象完全被偶像化了，部分作品出现了女性化的倾向（图13）[iii]。画中的毛泽东横空出世，红光满面。画面的视平线极低，背景完全是舞台化的，不是金光灿烂，就是红旗遍布，这与样板戏剧照的大量推广有密切的关系。这一阶段出现的各类“标准化”的制像，如《毛主席万岁――毛主席版画肖像汇编》[iv]（图14），不仅满足了报刊、会议、海报等种宣传的需要，也为普通的美术爱好者提供了类似于《芥子园画谱》的学画范本。后一阶段以1971年国务院文化组成立为标志，毛泽东题材的绘画创作又开始由中央统一负责，领导和专家组成的评审组和改画组重新左右全国的毛泽东美术作品的创作方向。在此后的五六年时间里，有关毛泽东的美术作品数量空前，也是各类全国美展的首选题材。总体看来，在这一阶段的作品中，毛泽东的形象还是要比先前两个时期（30－50年,50－66年）显示出一种“红、光、亮”和“高、大、全”的特点，头像基本来自照片，且多修饰，明显带有概念化倾向。尽管在构图和人物造型的处理方面又开始借鉴苏联的领袖画，但色彩鲜艳明亮，显然地有别于苏联，是一种非常具有中国特点的油画。这一时期代表性的作品有刘春华的油画《毛主席去安源》（1968年，图15），唐小禾的油画《在大风大浪中前进》（1971年，图16），陈衍宁的油画《毛主席视察广东农村》（1972年，图17）
4，第四期
改革开放以后，随着中国前卫艺术、尤其是“政治波普”的兴起，毛泽东的形象再度出现在中国艺术家的作品中。这种倾向与西方的波普艺术有关，也与苏联和东欧在八十年代初期出现的一些带有波普艺术特点的政治领袖的肖像画有关。在这一时期，毛泽东的形象更带有一种符号化的特征，其中也出现了一些在部分观众看来是不甚敬意的倾向。代表性作品有王广义的《毛泽东1号》（1988年，图18），余友涵的《招手》（1990年，图19）。
二、 图像的来源及风格
中国美术作品中的毛泽东形象（尤其是文革后）的主要图像来源是他的生活照片，这与十九世纪中照相术发明以来的肖像画的制像方式的变化有关，但更主要的是受到苏联的领袖题材的绘画及其相应的制像惯例的影响（И.勃罗茨基的油画《克里姆林宫前的列宁》与列宁在克里姆林宫前的摄影，图20）。
从我们现在掌握的资料来，中国只有两位画家作过毛泽东的写生像，一位是尹瘦石[v] （图21），一位是沈逸千。也可以说，几乎所有的画家在进行毛泽东形象的创作时，都是借助照片。毛泽东有随身摄影师，但没有随身画家，即便象刘文西这样长年从事毛泽东题材创作的画家，画面的形象也几乎全是借助于照片。这一现象与苏联非常相似。毛泽东美术作品的形式以年画、宣传画居多，油画、国画、版画、雕塑次之。它们的主要风格来源是传统木板年画、月份牌年画、西方近代木刻和苏联绘画；主要的题材来源是历史事件和苏联领袖画。
木板年画影响了毛泽东的年画风格，月份牌年画影响了毛泽东的宣传画和新年画的风格，近代木刻和苏联绘画则影响了毛泽东的主题性创作（油画、国画、版画、雕塑）。
1，照片的影响
毛泽东的照片既是画面的形象来源，也在一定程度上成了题材的来源。
A：郑景康1945年摄的《毛主席在延安》，力群四十年代中期的木刻《毛主
席》，浙江美术学院师生1969年创作的油画《毛主席肖像》，集体创作（佚名，约1967年）《毛主席与林副主席在一起》（图22）；1966年的摄影《毛主席在天安门城楼接见红卫兵》，沈尧伊1967年创作的木刻《跟着毛主席在大风大浪中前进》（图23）
B：傅植桂在1971年创作的油画《紧跟毛主席就是胜利》（图24），其题材和构思显然受到1957年毛泽东在柯庆施的陪同下在上海国棉一厂看大字报的摄影（图25）。[vi]1974年，傅植桂又在此基础上，创作了油画《大字报好》（图26），并将环境变成了钢铁厂。
2，木板年画的影响
木板年画对毛泽东的制像始自延安，这与当时毛泽东和鲁迅对民族风格的提倡有很大关系。在形式影响的同时，木板年画的某些功能也影响了毛泽东的画像创作。
A：1945年辽宁邮政发行的《中国解放区》（图27）的邮票中的毛泽东像，有别于当时的国统区发行的邮票中孙中山与蒋介石像。毛泽东像以线为主，悬胆鼻的处理显然出自木板年画，而孙中山和蒋介石邮票中作为边框纹样的希腊式立柱，在毛泽东的邮票中也失去了它原有的特征，顶边的光芒图案，也多见于中国的木板年画。[vii]
B：五十年代初，印有毛泽东像的年画《读报图》（图28）和《农历图》（图29）的形式，完全来自旧式的《春牛图》和《月份牌》（图30）。
C：作为一种中堂画，毛泽东画像在一定程度上满足了中国大众对他的敬仰和崇拜的心理需求。从某种意义上也可以说，中堂画里的毛泽东起到了木板年画中“门神”的作用。从黄丹创作的《中华人民共和国万岁》（图31）到五十年代初的年画《毛主席和朱总司令》（画名暂定，作者待查，图32），我们就可以看出画家对群众这一心理需求的满足。在《中华人民共和国万岁》中，骑马的解放军代替了“神荼”、“郁垒”（图33），护佑着毛泽东。而在《毛主席和朱总司令》中，毛泽东则被画成了骑在马上的“门神”。[viii]
3，月份牌年画的影响
“月份牌”对毛泽东制像的影响主要是绘画技法的。解放后，上海的大部分月份牌画家都参与到了新中国的年画和宣传创作的行列中，他们自然也将原先的绘画技法也带到了新的题材之中，如谢之光和李慕白。作为年画或“画片”的领袖像，结合了月份牌的光滑细腻风格，同样受到了群众的普遍喜爱。相对来说，在年画方面，北京出版的毛泽东画像，较多地吸取了木板年画和工笔画的传统，上海的毛泽东画像则较多地借鉴了带有西洋风味的“月份牌”擦笔画。
A：李慕白的年画《热爱共产党，热爱毛主席》（1953年，图34），华东人民美术出版社出版；李慕白的年画《幸福》（1959年，图35），天津美术出版社出；李慕白的年画《亲密的友谊》（1959年，图36），上海人民美术出版社出版。
B：谢之光的年画《毛主席在吟诗》（1960年，图37），上海人民美术出版社出版。
4，苏联绘画的影响
苏联的领袖画不仅在风格上，而且在题材上也影响了中国的领袖画。即便是六十年代中苏的政治关系发生了变化，中国的艺术却一直没有摆脱苏联的影响。直到文革进入反苏高潮时，中国艺术家的创作观念和造型手法也还是在借鉴甚至模仿苏联，只是在色彩上把苏联的“灰调子”革命成了“红光亮”。
A：艾中信的创作年画《毛主席和朱德总司令》（1953年，图38）无论在题材还是取景还是人物安排上，与盖拉西莫夫的油画《斯大林和伏罗西罗夫在克林姆林宫》（1938年，图39）十分相似。
B：沈尧伊创作的红黑两色的木刻《马克思列宁主义毛泽东思想万岁》（1967年，图40）的形制，来自苏联画家（待查）的素描《马恩列斯像》（图41）。在1945年延安杨家岭中央大礼堂主席台上的“四伟人”像的形制也显然来自苏联。这种伟人侧面像的形制一直影响到1990年版100元人民币的设计（图42），但人物的从左到右的等级排列却与惯例发生了矛盾，即从“马恩列斯毛”变成了“朱刘周毛”。这一图像没有被后来的中国传媒所接受。
C：从苏联画家B.布拉格尔的油画《列宁青年时代》（图43）中我们看到了刘春华《毛主席去安源》的影子，苏联领袖画的这种影响我们甚至在70年代末的中国画家的作品中还能看到，对此，可以比较一下李秀实的油画《疾风》（1979年，图44）和杰维亚托夫的油画《十月的风》（图45）。
三、 象征
虽然毛泽东一度被神化为圣人，但是，从我现在掌握的资料来看，西方的圣像画和中国的佛像画对毛泽东的制像并没有太直接的影响。毛泽东在文革中的那些具有偶像崇拜性质的宣传画，也只是运用一般的神像画形式，如神居于画面中心，神背后加上金色或黄色的光芒。佛像画的佛光圈和圣像画的圣光环都只是一种抽象的寓意形式[ix]，并不代表特殊的事物。而毛泽东形象的后面的圆圏则是太阳，四射的光芒就是太阳光。
我们之所以排除佛像画和圣像画对毛泽东制像的影响还有这样两个因素：1，制像者没有接受过圣像画和佛像画的训练，他们大都是三、四十年代从西式的美术学院毕业的学生（包括鲁艺），不是民间画工；2，毛泽东因为斗争的需要，虽然也接受了自己被“圣人”化、偶像化的现实，但他似乎没有对基督教和佛教的图像的表示兴趣，即便有，也不可能公开表示。
太阳在毛泽东的画像中是最有象征意义的图像。虽然在五十年代初的一些绘画中已经出现了“东方红，太阳升”的主题，但将毛泽东直接与太阳并置在一起的图像，还是从文革开始的。
为什么人们将毛泽东比作太阳，也可以说毛泽东为什么接受自己是太阳的化身呢？最直接的回答就是歌曲《东方红》的传播和影响[x]。在犹太教、回教、基督教这些一神教起源前，公元前14世纪的埃及的Amarn的艾赫那吞Akhenaten国王，曾经试图以太阳神为唯一的真神来尊奉，并摧毁其它诸神，据一些学者称，艾赫那吞国王的这种一神论实际上是基督教的前奏。但以太阳为神、或为偶像崇拜的宗教后来一直没有出现过，埃及在艾赫那吞死后不久也恢复了多神教。
毛泽东对太阳的兴趣是否与这一宗教的历史有关已不可考证。但他对太阳可谓是情有独钟。[xi]在1949年毛泽东与斯大林首次会见后，郭沫若在《史无前例的大事》一诗中这样写道：“仿佛是恩格斯会见了马克思，仿佛斯大林会见了列宁；相同的是同志战友们的会面，相异的是代表着两大国的人民。一个东方又加上了一个东方，一朵红星又加上了一朵红星，双重的太阳照临着整个世界……”
郭沫若在《题毛主席在飞机中工作的摄影》一首诗中又这样写道：“在一万公尺的高空上，在宛如平地的飞机上难怪阳光是加倍地明亮，机内和机外有着两个太阳。”[xii]
A：李宗津的年画《东方红》（1954年，图46），人民美术出版社出版。在这幅画中，太阳的形象并没有出现，可以说，它只是作为一种观念而暗示着。
B：宣传画《用毛泽东思想武装我们的头脑，做工人阶级的英勇战士》（图47），王朝闻的浮雕像的圆形外轮，已很容易让人联想到太阳；宣传画《在毛泽东思想指导下大闹技术革命!》（图48）中毛泽东像背后的光芒，则显然象征着太阳。
C：宣传画《毛主席是世界革命人民心中的红太阳》（文革，图49），毛泽东的形象完全被嵌入太阳之中。
四、 观念
作为一位大国的政治领袖，绘画中的毛泽东的形象的背后，暗含着各种复杂的政治和社会观念。艺术家在毛泽东像的创作过程中，大都受到这些观念的支配，并用图像方式来展示它。
1、“高矮问题”
建国以后，毛泽东肖像创作进入一个新的阶段，如前面提及的罗工柳的《毛主席在井冈山》、李琦的《主席走遍全国》等。但是总起来说还有许多不尽人意之处。据说，毛泽东在1958年的一次内部讲话中，暗示在马克思主义的伟人中，他与斯大林一样高(如果不是更高的话)，画像时就应该这样画，他抱怨说：“在50年代初期)中国艺术家画我和斯大林的像，总比斯大林矮一些，盲目屈服于那时苏联的精神压力。”[xiii]
叶子龙在他的回忆录中说，1950年2月14日，在克里姆林宫举行《中苏友好同盟互助条约》签字仪式时，他发现一个不引人注意的细节：毛泽东和斯大林以及中苏双方其它高级领导人合影时，斯大林稍稍向前挪了一小步。回到下榻处，他向毛泽东提到这一点。毛泽东微微一笑：“这样就一般高了嘛！”毛泽东身高180公分左右，斯大林看上去要矮一些，但从照片上看，两人差不多高。
图像中的身材高矮问题，实际上隐藏着一个政治上的地位的高低问题。中国从五十年代就开始用“马、恩、列、斯、毛”次序来排列共产主义领袖的位置，但在文革时期的中国人心目中，毛泽东的形象要远远高大于其它四位伟人。毛泽东在文革中的这种地位，不仅来自于他的“天才”和神性，也来自于他伟大的历史实践。[xiv]
李琦与冯真合作的年画《伟大的会见》（1951年，图50）。这幅画描绘了毛泽东与斯大林在苏联会见的场面，画家在处理“高矮”问题上别有一番苦心。粗眼看去，斯大林要比毛泽东高，但若我们按照这幅画采用的透视原理，将走在前面的斯大林放在毛泽东的地平线上，就会发现，斯大林要比毛泽东矮。
但有趣的是，随着宣传口径的变化，画面中的领袖人物的高矮也起了变化。这里以几幅宣传画为例：周成1953年作的《马克思列宁主义——毛泽东思想的光辉照耀新中国》（图51）与署名为“陕西美术组”创作的《伟大的马克思主义、列宁主义、毛泽东思想万岁》（图52）都属相同题材的宣传画，但毛泽东与其它四伟人的高度就有明显的出现了差异。而王肇达1968创作的宣传画《毛泽东思想是当代马克思列宁主义的顶峰》（图53）中，毛泽东的形象就更高大了。
2、大小与正侧问题
与“高矮问题”相似，“大小问题”在某种特殊的历史时期也成了一个政治等级上的高低问题。由于受苏联的写实主义的影响，新中国油画的空间处理基本上是“再现性”（Representative Image）而非“概念性”（conceptional Image）。因而，几乎所有的主题性绘画中，毛泽东形象比较合乎人们日常视觉经验。但在文革中，狂热的政治观念却改变了这一表现方式。
油画《东方红》（图54），是北京中学红代会中央美术学院附中反修兵团1967年创作的。这幅画的明暗和空间处理基本上都采取了再现性的表现手法，但人物的安排却明显具有概念性的特点。居于画面中央的是正面的毛泽东，右侧的林彪虽然也是正面，但体形要小；周恩来居左侧，体形更小，且为侧向；陈伯达、康生、江青等中央文革的成员的形象则以此类推。中国古代帝王图只讲大小律（图55），而年画神马（图56）倒是在讲大小律的同时也守正侧律。但我们认为，《东方红》的这种等级制造像的观念似乎更接近西方的中世纪圣像画，如拜占庭的镶嵌画《面包与鱼的奇迹》（the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes，图57）。通过下列图片，我们可以看到同一题材是如何又从观念性图像向再现性图像的转换的：集体创作（佚名，待查）的《毛主席和我们在一起》（1967年，图58）、集体创作（佚名，待查）的油画《毛主席与革命群众心连心》（1967年，图59），侯一民、邓澍、靳尚谊、詹建俊、罗工柳、袁浩、杨桂林的油画《将无产阶级文化大革命进行到底》（图60）。
3，左右问题
在毛泽东的侧面头像、尤其是纪念章中，以左侧居多。从初期来看，可能与王朝闻在1950年创作的那被认为是带有标准像性质的浮雕像的广泛传播有关。[xv]在古埃及、罗马、希腊的纪念像中，人物的左右朝向似乎没有一种特定的含义。一般看来，也以左侧较为多见，其原因也许是左侧像似乎便大多数用右手持笔的画家们的绘制。但在文革中，毛泽东的标准性的纪念章，则几乎全是左侧像，它受到这样的一个观念支配：毛泽东是支持左派的（图61）。
五，政治形势与艺术命运
在表现毛泽东的美术作品，有不少由于受历史事件和表现形式的影响而成为中国美术史上非常具有争议性的作品。由于“高岗事件”和“文革”，作者董希文被迫对油画《开国大典》（1953年，图62）作了“换头手术”；[xvi]钟涵的油画《延河边上》（1963年，图63）和石鲁的国画《转战陕北》由于没有正面表现毛泽东的形象和将毛泽东置于悬崖陡壁而遭到批判；[xvii]而侯一民也由于“形势”的需要，分别画了油画《刘少奇同志与安源矿工》（1960，图64）和油画《毛主席和安源工人在一起》（1976年，图65），来解释谁是中国工人运动的领袖问题。[xviii]这类作品不仅常常使画家置于尴尬的境地，甚至改变了他们的命运。
我们在《新中国美术图史1966－1976》中，就刘春华的《毛主席去安源》[xix]一画的命运已作了较详细的述说，这里不再重复。我们认为，在文革中，还有两幅非常具有戏剧性的油画作品有必要在此一说，因为它们的命运也多少与《毛主席去安源》有些关联。
1，郑胜天、周瑞文、徐君萱的油画《人间正道是沧桑――毛主席视察大江南北》
为提示文革发动三十周年，1996年的美国《新闻周刊》的五月号的封面刊登了油画《人间正道是沧桑――毛主席视察大江南北》（图66）。这幅画是浙江美术学院（现为中国美术学院）的青年教师郑胜天等执笔的，作于1967年。这幅画在当时曾经广为流传，在上海火车站及南方的一些城市的主要街道和公共场所，到处可见，甚至还被制成各种装饰物。然而，没过两年的时间，这幅画就很快被人们遗忘了。这是有其特殊历史原因的。
毛泽东在1967年7月视察了华北、中南和华东的几个重要的省份。当时全国各地的红卫兵运动已出现了派系斗争，并日趋激烈。毛泽东感到局面可能失去控制，因而亲自出巡视，他除了表示对“四个伟大”、“永远健康”等这类个人崇拜的口号表示不满外，还指出“要用文斗，不要搞武斗”、“实现革命的大联合”，并在一些讲话中批评了造反派。这次巡视，标志着狂风暴雨式的群众运动的结束。这就是油画《人间正道是沧桑――毛主席视察大江南北》的政治背景。1968年5月，浙江省造反派领袖、浙江美术学院版画系学生张永生为获取政治资本，将浙江省创作的一批歌颂毛泽东的绘画送到北京，请江青审阅。我们在当时的油印刊物上找到了这样的记录：“当江青同志看了美院革委会在文化大革命中的几幅描绘伟大领袖形象的创作以后指示：“画领袖象要特别慎重，不然要打败仗。画主席的象不能粗制滥造。’江青同志看了‘人间正道是沧桑’这幅画基本上是肯定的，同时批评说：“群众讲好啊，好啊！可是细细琢磨起来有问题，背景太复杂，下颊不舒服，右手画的不够好。要突出人物，背景不要太杂。’……最近有一幅毛主席到安源去的油画，非常好，把主席的神气刻划出来了。”
《人间正道是沧桑――毛主席视察大江南北》没有为张永生带来政治上的好处，却使《毛主席去安源》使了文革美术的样板。这幅画之所以没有走红，除去江青所说的那些形式上的问题，显然是张永生还缺乏更高的路线斗争的觉悟，他没有意识到这幅画的背景正是毛泽东对以江青为代表的极左路线的批评。此外，当是还有一种传闻说，江青认为这幅画中的毛泽东的动作不合他平时的习惯，并认为这一姿势是从苏联油画《我们祖国的早晨》（Fyodor Shurpin the Morning of Our Motherland,1946，图67）中的斯大林那里模仿来的。
2，方增先等执笔的油画《唤起工农千百万》
尽管由于江青大力推出，《毛主席去安源》成了文革的样板画，但当时浙江的画家似乎都有这样的一种看法：《毛主席去安源》虽然在构思、构图方面完美地塑造了毛泽东的光辉形象，但在艺术处理上却没有体现“古为今用，洋为中用，百花齐放，推陈出新”的十六字方针，可以说，它基本上还是一幅西洋油画。基于专业界的这种看法，张永生发动了浙江美术学院的各系的部分学生和教师进行了大规模反映毛泽东在各个历史时期的丰功伟绩的创作，盼望出现一批在艺术上更经得起推敲的作品。1968年，方增先与两名国画系的学生接受了画毛泽东在安源的任务后，到安源体验了一段时间的生活，积累了一些素材，决定创作一幅大型国画。方增先在画完小样后，便向张永生提出，用国画这种形式来画这样一幅八平方米的大画不太合适，在没有一张毛泽东当年的侧面照片作参考的情况下，画面的最后效果是很难把握的，更何况在当时那种“火红”的年代里，国画的表现力是无法与油画比拟的。方增先建议用油画的方式来画这幅画[xx]，张永生表示同意。据方增先回忆，他是根据一张毛泽东中年的侧面照片（1942年毛泽东在延安整风会议上作报告，图68）来处理画面上的毛泽东形象的，并用了将近整整半个月的时间。人物的形象基本上都是平光的处理，服装和道具则采用了写意国画的表现方式。画面的最终效果非常强烈，洋溢出一股勃勃生机。虽然人物姿态和整体布局与三四十年代的苏联的领袖画非常相似，但画面给人的总体氛围显然具有中国传统绘画的特征。尽管这一幅画是用油画材料画成的，但在轮廓、色彩、以及明暗关系的处理时，画家却运用了不少国画的表现手法。画面有二分之一的地方被留作空白，人物显得十分突出，道具和一些次要的细节被大胆地省略，物体的前后关系，也不是通过西画的空气透视、而是国画的虚实手法表现出来的。这幅画采用的基本上是薄涂画法，黑色和调色油的结合运用，十分逼近国画中的墨与水的效果，浓郁厚重而不乏灵动之趣。这种用线条的勾勒来强调人物结构的处理手法，是以方增先、周昌谷、李震坚为代表的浙派国画的典型。可以说，这幅画与同时期的那些领袖画相比，无论是造型的严谨，还是风格的独标，都更为杰出。应当说，这幅题为《唤起工农千百万》的油画，是一幅具有相当艺术质量、也是十分符合当时的那种宣传口味的力作。张永生力图将其塑造成是美术界“古为今用”、“洋为中用”的一个样板，如同音乐界的钢琴伴唱《红灯记》一样。但是，江青在看了这幅画后，并不以为然，认为国画的形式没有必要用油画的材料来画，因此也就没有必要将其作为美术界的“样板”，以替代《毛主席去安源》。这里，我们不妨做这样的一个设想，如果江青对于中西方美术史也有足够的知识——就像她对中西方的戏剧那样，那么，她很有可能对方增先的这幅“古为今用，洋为中用”的油画赞赏不已，也很可能将其树为美术界的“样板画”，大力推广，那样，整个文革绘画将会完全是另一个面貌。《唤起工农千百万》一画的结局，完全出乎浙江美术界的领导和艺术家的预料之外，虽然，当时浙江省的一些主要出版物都发表了这幅作品，甚至还用整开纸的幅面彩印了这幅画。但时隔不久，它很快被人遗忘了。
毛泽东领导中国革命的时间长达半个世纪。此间，中国社会发生了激烈的变革，中国的艺术也发生了前所未有的革命，它的造型观念，它的表现形式，都深深地打上了这个时代的烙印，并成为世界美术史上一个非常特殊的篇章。在这一篇章中，毛泽东是一个非常显著的主题。尽管毛泽东对中国的美术并没有指出过具体的发展方向，也没有对表现他的美术作品提出具体的意见。但是，通过对有关他的美术作品分析，我们却能清晰地看到这个时代的美学风气，可以看到这种风气是如何在毛泽东的政治学说及其领导的社会革命对它的影响，看到中国艺术家如何在革命热情的激发下进行艺术创作的动人场面，看到一系列异于中国的古代传统和西方的现代制度下的艺术创作、欣赏、评审、传播以及收藏等运作机制。这些，都将有助于我们来重新认识艺术的社会功能。
＊ 本文是我们合作撰写的《毛泽东制像研究》一书的部分章节的提要。限于篇幅，其它章节的内容，末能在此以提要的方式展示。文中的苏联画家的作品名由邵大箴先生为我们译出，在此表示谢意。
[i] 1949年5月21日，中宣部关于领袖像的印制、江南的发行工作等问题给香港邵荃麟的电报全文如下：
香港
黄洛峰致邵荃麟并转张朝同电请转(一)列、毛、朱像已收，画得欠佳。毛像既已制版，印少数收回成本，即不再印。列、朱像停印。斯像虽未见样，亦停印。此间正油画标准像，完工即寄印……
中宣部辰马
此电说明当时毛泽东等领袖像有“画得欠佳”的情况，而北京“正油画标准像”，也就是说，1949年以后，毛泽东肖像的创作，已由中宣部等重要部门抓紧制作。《党史文汇》1999年第一期，兴蔚撰文《毛泽东主席第一张标准像的産产生》，介绍了在1950年初，身为中国新闻总署副署长兼新闻摄影局局长的萨空了向新闻总署署长胡乔木提议，由摄影局拍摄毛泽东的新标准像并迅速向国内外发行的经过。
[ii] 见大型画册《革命历史画选》，人民美术出版社，1962年，北京。此画册收录的都是中国革命博物馆和中国人民革命军事博物馆的藏品，共28幅，且大部分是1957至61年间创作，其中表现毛泽东的有近10幅，刘少奇，贺龙也都有独立的画面。
[iii] 如江西省在1969年编辑出版的《井冈山的斗争》画册中的《向井冈山进军》、《毛主席在连队建党》、《毛主席在庆祝遂川县工农兵政府成立大会上》、《毛主席在井冈山农村调查》的毛泽东的形象；同时，毛泽东的身材也越来越显得高大，如《全世界革命人民紧跟伟大领袖毛主席奋勇！》。
可谓是“男人女相”和“南人北相”。郭沫若与毛泽东初次会面后，在《创造十年续篇》中这样写道：“太史公对于留侯张良的赞语说：‘余以为其人计魁梧奇伟，至见其图，状貌如妇人好女。吾于毛泽东亦云然。人字形的短了分排在两鬓，目光谦抑而潜沉，脸皮嫩黄而细致，说话声音低而娓婉”。由于长期来，毛泽东的画像中很少出现有胡须的形象，所以，在一些民间传说中，毛泽东是不长胡须的，有的人甚至将此与他子女的不幸联系起来，这属讹传。我们在现在公布的毛泽东参加陈毅追悼会的文献片可以明显地看到留有胡须的毛泽东。
张玉凤在《毛泽东周恩来晚年的事》一文中记述了1972年尼克松来华，毛泽东接见他的情景：毛泽东“衣着不整、头发长得很长，胡子也好久没有理了——我们的领袖病了一个多月了”。1987年12月30日《光明日报》
[iv] 《毛主席万岁——毛主席版画肖像汇编》。汇编是一本64开的小画册，由首都大专院校红卫兵代表大会中央工艺美术学院东方红公社编绘，1967年国庆节印刷发行。中央工艺美院革命委员会于1968年12月出版《大海航行靠舵手》木刻组画，16开，套红木刻(黑红两色)。1966年8月18日毛泽东接见红卫兵之后，中央美院版画系红卫兵就创作了一组木刻作品，其中《跟着毛主席在大风大浪中前进》是沈尧伊创作的。此画经新华印刷厂印制后大量发行，在新华书店出售，后又在报上发表，此画上的毛泽东侧面头像又被作为单独的作品发表，或作为报上毛主席语录的刊头画。
[v] 尹瘦石于1945年10月国共和谈期间在重庆为毛泽东作写生像，此像和其他进步人士肖像一起在重庆与诗人柳亚子举办的“柳诗尹画联展”中展出，毛泽东为画展题字。
[vi]大字报题目有：《只有社会主义能够救中国－－驳斥右派谬论》，《深入开展对于修正主义的批判》，《坚决走社会主义道路》，大字报的落款时间为，1957,9，18。
[vii] 解放区邮票中的这种“民族化”特点，一方面固然与制像观念有关，同时也与当时的印刷条件有关。国统区的上乘邮票是雕版印刷，普通邮票也都是胶版，解放区的邮票却有大量是木板印刷的。
[viii] 从我们掌握的文献资料来看，毛泽东并没有骑马征战的事例。马对毛泽东来说只是一种代步的工具。
[ix] 佛像画中的“毗卢遮那佛”（即密宗的“大日如来”）背后的圆光环应是太阳，但总体看来，佛像中的圆环的还是较的抽象的。
[x] “东方红，太阳升，中国出了个毛泽东，他为人民谋幸福，他是人民大救星。”《毛主席像太阳》一书分别在1946年和1947年于胶东新华书店、辽南群众书店发行。
[xi] 叶子龙在他的回忆录中关于毛泽东访苏时有这样的一段记录：专列进入苏联境内后的一天早晨，毛主席把我叫到他的卧室……此时毛主席正眺望着车窗外冰封的西伯利亚原野，一轮红日正从远处的山巅喷薄而出。我从他手中拿下已经快要烧到手指的烟蒂，按灭在烟灰缸里，毛主席并没有动：“子龙啊，这里的太阳和西柏坡有幺子不一样的？”他又一次提到了太阳！在我的记忆里，这两年，他已经多次说到太阳这个词了，而且我知道，那不是一般意义的“太阳”。还有一次，是在一年前，也就是1948年春天，毛主席东渡黄河到达河北阜平县城南庄，他没有直接到西柏坡，而是准备从这里去苏联。他说，太阳出来了。我要与斯大林同志谈谈东方日出的问题。为此，做了大量的准备工作。但由于被斯大林婉言谢绝，没能去成。后来，斯大林派“资深政治局委员”米高扬来到西柏坡。在专列上，毛主席再次谈到太阳。我没有回答，我知道不用我回答什么。
[xii] 以上两诗引自季国平著《毛泽东与郭沬若》，第169、180、181页，北京出版社，1998年。
[xiii] ［美］莫里斯·迈斯纳著：《毛泽东与马克思主义、乌托邦主义》，第170页，中央文献出版社，1991年。
[xiv]在文革中，相传林彪说过样一段话：“毛主席所经历的事情，比马克思、恩格斯、列宁都多得多。当然，马克思、恩格斯、列宁是伟大的人物。马克思活了六十五岁，恩格斯活了七十五岁。他们有很高的预见，他们继承了人类先进的思想，预见到人类社会的发展。可是他们没有亲身领导过无产阶级革命，没有象毛主席那样，亲临前线指挥那么多重大的政治战役，特别是军事战役。列宁只活了五十四岁，十月革命胜利以后六年就去世了。他没有经历过象毛主席那样长期、那样复杂、那样激烈、那样多方面的斗争。中国人口比德国多十倍，比俄国多四倍，革命经验之丰富，没有那一个能超过。毛主席在全国、全世界有最高的威望，是最卓越、最伟大的人物……”应该说，林彪的这段话是有所本的。毛泽东在1958年5月的八大二次会议的讲话上，提出了破除迷信、厚今薄古的观点，并一口气举了三十多个中外历史上年轻人敢于创造和超过前人的事例。毛泽东还这样说，“不要怕吧！马克思也是两只眼睛、两只手、一个脑袋，跟我们差不多，只是他那脑子里头有一大堆马克思主义。他写了很多东西给我们看，我们不一定都看完…，马克思那末多东西，时间不够，不一定都要读完，读几本就可以了。我们实际做的，许多都超过了马克思。列宁所说的、做的，许多地方都超过了马克思。马克思没有十月革命，列宁做了。中国这样的革命，马克思没有做，我们做了。我们的实践超过了马克思。实践当中是要出道理的。马克思革命没革成，我们革成了。”见 《战无不胜的毛泽东思想万岁》，第一册，第196页，新湖大革命造反临时委员会宣传部编印，1967年8月。
[xv] 谭天在《20世纪中国雕塑史上的奇特景观》一文中提及到王朝闻的这一左侧面的浮雕对后来的毛泽东制像的影响。他根据北京出版社出版的《毛泽东像章收藏图鉴》统计，左侧像占浮雕像的68%。见：《二十世纪中国雕塑学术论文集》第72页，青岛出版社，2000年。现存最早毛泽东像雕是1937年东北抗日联军颁了的毛泽东银质奖章。其后是由凌子风1945年为庆祝“七大”制作毛泽东像章。纪念章和浮雕像的产生，都是出于对被塑者的尊敬，其历史可追至古罗马的钱币。中国古代没有在钱币上制造人像的传统，自近代袁世凯开此风气，蒋介石时的民国政府又有孙中山的形象出现。蒋介石形象出现在钱币上是去台湾以后的事，此前，蒋介石只有纪念章。在苏联，列宁和斯大林的形象也只出现在纪念章而没有出现在钱币上。有趣的是，在中国的苏区则出现过列宁像的一圆币。1933年，刘开渠拜访蔡元培，鲁迅在场，鲁迅得知刘开渠是学雕塑的，便对他说“过去，雕塑只是做菩萨像，现存该轮到做人像了。” 这在很大程度上激发了刘开渠在建国后为毛泽东等领袖和英雄们塑像的热情。
[xvi] 这种“换头术”和涂改术，我们可以在苏联的领袖摄影中找到大量的例子，参见‘THE COMMISSAR VANISHES’ Written by David King, Metopoliton Books Press, 1997
[xvii] 这两幅画都表现了毛泽东的背面形象，这一手法在列宁的绘画中可以找到相似的例子。
[xviii] 侯一民在《＜毛主席和安源工人一起＞一画的创作经过和一些体会》一文中，对过去描绘刘少奇一画表示遗憾：“由于我缺乏路线斗争的觉悟，做了他们（指六十年代的中宣部，引者加）的工具”。此文刊登在1977第三期的《美术》。然而，没过两年，中共中央为刘少奇平反，不久，《刘少奇同志与安源矿工》便又成了述说中国革命史的主要图像。
[xix] 这里作一点补充说明。这幅画对西方的观众来说也很熟悉。我们在与西方观众的交流中发现，这幅画常常被一段被错译的毛泽东的讲话联系起来。斯诺在他的“漫长的革命”（The Long Revolution）一书中这样说，“当他亲切地送我到门口时，我说他这个人不复杂，真是简单不过了。他说，他不过是一个带着一把破伞云游世间的孤僧罢了。”这句话有些符合毛泽东晚年孤独的境遇及超凡不俗的个性的话，被斯诺公诸于世以来，在世界范围内广泛流传，并且在一定程度上影响了西方的观众对《毛主席去安源》这幅画的意义的解读。事实上，这是当时的翻译的一句误译。国内毛泽东学者龚育之1991年1月7日致信《人民日报》澄清此事，公布了毛泽东的原话：“我不怕说错话， 我是无法无天，叫‘和尚打伞’――无发无天，没有头发，没有天。”当然，毛泽东晚年的一些与外宾的谈话，确实让人感受到一种伟人的悲剧意识。尼克松《领袖们》一书中谈到毛泽东常用自谦之词来委婉地表达这种悲剧感，他与毛泽东这样说，基辛格提到他在哈佛大学当教授时，曾经指定他的学生阅读毛泽东的著作。毛泽东回答说，“我的这些著作算不了什么。我写的东西并没有什么教益。”我说：您的著作已经推动了国家，也改变了世界。毛泽东回答道：“我一直没有能力去改变世界。我顶多只能改变北京郊区的几个地方而已。” 说这话时，真是文革中期，虽然出了林彪事件，但毛泽东的威望可说仍是如日中天。不过，他非常怀疑到底有多少中国人是真正信奉他的思想的。毛泽东的晚年中确实有一种悲剧意识，对此，最值得一读的是他在1966年《给江青的一封信》。
[xx] 方增先的大学时代是在绘画系，对油画的技法和表现效果也有相当的了解，他的油画教师是留法的庄子曼。
Study on the Creation of Portraits of Mao Zedong (Summary )*
By Yan Shanchun
Mao Zedong was a great man of China in the 20th century, he was also regarded as “a genius”, “the red sun” and “a sage”. There have been great achievements of research at home and abroad on Mao Zedong’s life and his thought, and among these achievements, books published by the Central Literature Publishing House are exceptionally valuable. However, studies on Mao Zedong’s pictures and photographs still remain in the stage of collecting, sorting out and publishing the pictures, and have not yet advanced to the stage of analyzing the pictures’ origins, transformation of artistic forms and its significance. With a limited number of art works in hand, I will try to present my preliminary studies on the creation of the image of Mao Zedong in this article, in another word, I will try to give a brief account of the history of the creation of portraits of Mao Zedong.
I. Classification of Periods
The history of the creation of portraits of Mao Zedong can be divided into four periods. This classification on the whole is similar to the current classification of the history periods of the Community Party of China (CPC). The first period was from 1930s to 1950s; the second period, from 1950 to 1966; the third period refers to the Cultural Revolution decade (1966—1976); and the fourth period started from China’s implementation of the policies of economic reform and opening to the outside world (in 1978).
1. The first period
The creation of portraits of Mao Zedong in this period largely served for some practical purposes, for example, for a front cover of a book, for an article on a newspaper or a magazine, for decorating a meeting venue, for a guiding placard of a parade or for stamp designs. Most of the portraits were engraved on wood. Two reasons accounted for this material choice: lack of painting materials during wartime and Lu Xun (the father of modern Chinese literature)’s promotion of the new art form of wood engraving. The earliest portrait of Mao Zedong that we can find from an official publication is a portrait entitled Mao Zedong (Picture 1) published in Revolutionary Pictorial by Red China Newspaper Publishing House in 1933. From the technique of light and shade treatment on the picture, we can tell that this portrait was based of a photograph, not a portrait of life. Generally speaking, the portraits of Mao Zedong during this period seem fairly rough without much polishing, giving people an impression that Mao Zedong was an ordinary leader of the masses or even a leader of guerrilla warfare. The creation of Mao Zedong portraits during this period was basically spontaneous. Although the central government had also organized portrait creation for some important events, this kind of organization had not become a common practice, and no departments or persons had been appointed to be in charge of the creation. The situation was roughly the same even at Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Yan’an. The representative works during this period included a wood engraving Red Star Is Shinning Over China by Wo Cha (late 1930s, Picture 2), a colored woodcut Portrait of Mao Zedong (1942, Picture 3) and a colored woodcut Gathering of Heroes by Shi Lu (1946, Picture 4).
2. The Second Period
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (in 1949), the creation of Mao Zedong’s portraits, particularly the creation of a number of important official portraits, had come under the direct leadership of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. The portrayed Mao Zedong during this period started to show an easy manner of a big country’s leader and that of a great man: he was solemn, dignified and affable, with a loving kindness. At the same time, many art institutions at central and local levels had formed commissions in charge of the art creation with the theme of Chinese revolutionary history. During this period, theme paintings depicting Mao Zedong’s revolutionary achievements were produced in huge quantities. Most of the paintings’ settings were based on specific real life situations. Although the image of Mao Zedong was put in a fairly focal position, he was still close to the masses and the image seemed sincere and honest. The paintings were by and large based on photographs, and the artists gave the rein to their own imagination in painting.. The Soviet leaders’ portraits left prints on the artistic form of these paintings. Among the earliest exhibits displayed when the Chinese Revolutionary Museum and the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolutionary first opened to the public, the portraits of Mao Zedong on display typically reflected the features of Mao-theme paintings during that period. What is worth mentioning is that from late 1950s, oil painting artists in China began to explore a national style when painting pictures of Mao Zedong, and the oil painting Chairman Mao in the Jinggangshan Mountains (1959, Picture 5) by Luo Gongliu was one of the examples. Meanwhile, artists of traditional Chinese painting had also tried to be innovative in painting pictures about Mao Zedong, and this effort was mirrored in Shi Lu’s painting Fighting Successively in Different Parts in Northern Shangxi (1959, Picture 6). The representative works during this period were Wang Chaowen’s relief sculpture Portrait of Chairman Mao (1950, Picture 7), Luo Gongliu’s oil painting Chairman Mao Makes a Speech on Rectification at a Carders’ Meeting in Yan’an (1951, Picture 8), Zhan Shangyi’s oil painting Chairman Mao at the December Meeting (1961, Picture 9), Li Qi’s traditional Chinese painting The Chairman Travels the Length and Breadth of the Whole Country (1960, Picture 10), Cai Liang’s oil painting The Son of Poor Peasants (1964, Picture 11), and Peng Lin’s oil painting Idle Boast the Strong Pass Is a Wall of Iron (1965, Picture 12).
3. The Third Period
This period can be divided into two phases. The first phase ranged from 1966 to 1969. Because of an imperative need of creating a god, the trend of painting Mao Zedong’s portraits ran rampant. Although it was the Central Cultural Revolution Group that gave the idea of launching this portraits creation movement, it was in fact the masses who basically organized the creation and publicized the works spontaneously. There was a great disparity in artistic quality of the works during this period, when Mao Zedong’s image was totally idolized, and in some works, the image even showed a womanish manner (Picture 13). In this picture, Mao Zedong was high above the earth, with his face glowing with health. The apparent horizon of the picture was extremely low, and the setting was entirely identical to those of stage scenery, with golden rays shinning or red flags spreading all over. The appearance of such stage settings in paintings was attributed much to the massive promotion of the stage photographs of the revolutionary model operas and ballets that Jiang Qing espoused. During this period, there emerged various “official” portraits, take Long Live Chairman Mao – a Collection of Chairman Mao’s Portraits (Picture 14) as an example, it had not only met the propaganda needs for newspapers and periodicals, meetings and posters, but also offered ordinary amateurs a model to learn painting. In this respect, it served the similar function as that of The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting (a classic of Chinese painting and a wonderful source of reference) for beginners of painting. The second phase started in 1971 when the Culture Team of the State Council was formed. Since then, the central government had resumed its responsibility for organizing painting creation with the theme of Mao Zedong, and an assessment team and a painting revising team composed of officials and experts had resumed their roles in setting an orientation for the creations. During the following five or six years, the number of art works about Mao Zedong had been increasing at an unprecedented rate, and these paintings became the hot choice for various national art exhibitions. On the whole, the image of Mao Zedong during this period, compared with that during the previous two periods (from 1930 to 1950, and from 1950 to 1966), showed distinctive characteristics of being “red, bright and shinning” in coloring and “lofty, great and perfect” in figure portraying. Head portraits were largely based on photographs, with much polishing and a tendency of formularization and generalization. Chinese artists started once again to copy the techniques in composition and figure portraying used by Soviet artists in painting portraits of Soviet leaders. However, when coloring, Chinese artists preferred brighter colors, which made their oil paintings prominent with strong Chinese characteristics, distinguishing from those Soviet paintings. The representative works during this period included Liu Chunhua’s Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan (968, Picture 15), Tang Xiaohe’s oil painting Advance In Great Storms (1971, Picture 16), and Chen Yanning’s oil painting Chairman Mao Pays an Inspection to the Rural Areas in Guangdong (1972, Picture 17).
4. The Fourth Period
Since the implementation of the policies of economic reform and opening to the outside world (in 1978) i, avant-garde art, particularly the “political pop” art, emerged in China. The image of Mao Zedong was once again back in the pictures by Chinese painters. This phenomenon partly owed to the influence of the western countries’ pop art, and partly owed to the appearance of some political leaders’ portraits with pop art characteristics in the Soviet Union and eastern European countries in 1980s. During this period, portraits of Mao Zedong had some symbolism characteristics, and, in opinion of some viewers, these pictures did not show enough esteem for Mao Zedong. Representative works during this period included Wang Guangyi’s No. One Mao Zedong Portrait (1988, Picture 18) and Yu Youhan’s Waving (1990, Picture 19).
II. Origin and Style of the Portraits
The image of Mao Zedong in art works in China (particular in those after the Cultural Revolution period) were mainly based on Mao’s life photographs. This technique change in portrait painting was attributed to the invention of photography in the 19th century, and more important, attributed to the influence of the Soviet leaders’ portrait paintings as well as the conventional painting techniques applied to such paintings (Isaak Brodsky’s oil painting Lenin in front of the Kremlin and photograph of Lenin in front of the Kremlin, Picture 20).
From the materials that I have in hand, I noticed that only two artists in China had the experience of painting portraits from life for Mao Zedong. One of them was Yin Soushi (Picture 21), the other was Shen Yiqian. We can say that almost all artists have had the aid of photographs when they created the images of Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong had his own photographers, but he did not have personal painters. Even Liu Wenxi, an artist who had long been engaged in painting Mao Zedong theme pictures, has created almost all the images of Mao with the aid of photographs. This situation highly resembled that in the Soviet Union. Most of the art works about Mao Zedong were painted in the forms of New Year pictures or picture posters, followed by the forms of oil paintings, traditional Chinese paintings, prints and sculptures. The styles of these works originated from the traditional woodcut New Year pictures, calendar New Year pictures, modern western woodcuts and the Soviet paintings. The major themes of these paintings originated from historical events or were copied from the Soviet leader portraits. The woodcut New Year pictures affected the style of the Mao Zedong-theme New Year pictures, whereas the calendar New Year pictures left prints on the styles of picture posters and New Year pictures about Mao. The modern wood engraving art and the Soviet paintings had exerted an influence on the content of art creations (i.e. oil paintings, traditional Chinese paintings, prints and sculptures) with the theme of Mao Zedong.
1. Influence of the Photographs
Photographs of Mao Zedong were the source materials for the images creation as well as, to some extent, the source for the themes.
A. Chairman Mao in Yan’an was photographed by Zheng Jingkang in 1945; wood engraving Chairman Mao was created by Li Qun in mid 1940s; oil painting Portrait of Chairman Mao was painted by teachers and students of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1969; a group creation Chairman Mao with Vice Chairman Lin (Picture 22) (by anonymous painters in 1967); photograph Chairman Mao Reviews the Red Guards on the Rostrum of Tian An Men in 1966, and the woodcut Advance with Chairman Mao in Storms was created by Shen Raoyi in 1967.
B. The oil painting Keeping in Step with Chairman Mao Leads to Victory (Picture 24) was created by Fu Zhigui in 1971. The theme and the composition of the picture were apparently affected by a photograph (Picture 25) on which Mao Zedong, accompanied by Ke Qingshi (Mao’s royal ally in Shanghai), reviewed big-character posters at Shanghai State-Owned Cotton Mill in 1957. In 1974, Fu Zhigui created an oil painting Big-Character Posters Are Good (Picture 26) based on this photograph, but the setting was changed into that of a steel plant.
2. Influence of the Woodcut New Year Pictures
To portray Mao Zedong with the techniques used for the woodcut New Year pictures originated in Yan’an. This change of artistic form owed much to the advocacy by Mao Zedong and Lu Xun (famous writer and founder and patron of the Creative Print Movement) for a national style in artistic creation. In addition to this change, some functions of the woodcut New Year pictures also produced an impact on the creation of Mao Zedong portraits.
A: The Liberated Area in China (Picture 27) was a design for a postage stamp issued by Liaoning Posts in 1945. The portrait of Mao Zedong on the stamp looks different from those of Sun Yat-sen (Chinese revolutionary forerunner) and Jiang Jieshi (head of Guomindang) on the stamps issued by Guomingdang administrative area. This portrait of Mao Zedong was finished by using many lines, and the treatment of the nose apparently resembled that for a woodcut New Year picture. The pattern of Greek-styled columns used to decorate frames of the stamps with Sun Yat-sen and Jiang Jieshi portraits lost its original characteristics when used for the stamp with Mao’s portrait. The radiance on the upper background (of the stamp with Mao’s portrait) was a common sight in woodcut New Year pictures.
B: Reading a Newspaper (Picture 28) and Lunar Calendar (Picture 29) were two New Year pictures with Mao Zedong’s image published in early 1950s. The painting styles were exactly the same as those of old-fashioned paintings Cattle in Spring and Calendar (Picture 30).
C. Portraits of Mao Zedong, as central scrolls hanging in the middle of the walls of the main rooms, had, to some extent, satisfied Chinese people’s psychological needs for showing their reverence and worship to the chairman. In a sense, we can say that Mao Zedong painted on the central scrolls had in fact served as a “door-god” (whose pictures were often pasted on the front door of a house as a talisman in old China). From the picture Long Live the People’s Republic of China created by Huang Dan (Picture 31) to the New Year picture Chairman Mao and Commander-in-Chief Zhu (the title of the picture needs to be verified, Picture 32) painted in early 1950s, we can sense the efforts of artists to meet the psychological needs of the masses. In the picture Long Live the People’s Republic of China, liberation army soldiers on horseback were escorting Mao Zedong. The roles of the army soldiers here were equivalent to the roles of Shennai and Yulei (two legendary gods against evil spirits at the Chinese Spring Festival). In the picture Chairman Mao and Commander-in-Chief Zhu, Mao Zedong was portrayed as a “door god” on horseback.
3. Influence of the Calendar Pictures
Calendar painting’s major influence on the creation of the portraits of Mao Zedong was its painting techniques. Since the founding of New China, most calendar painters in Shanghai joined the team of painting New Year pictures and picture posters for the new country. They naturally introduced their original painting techniques to the new-theme painting, Xie Zhiguang and Li Mubai were two representatives of the painters. The portraits of Mao Zedong on these New Year pictures and calendar pictures were very popular among the masses because of the pictures’ smooth quality and exquisite style. On contrast, portraits of Mao Zedong in the form of New Year pictures published in Beijing had inherited more traditional techniques from woodcut New Year pictures and traditional Chinese realistic painting (characterized by fine brushwork and close attention to detail). Portraits of Mao Zedong published in Shanghai had introduced the techniques of carbon painting used in western calendar pictures.
A: A New Year picture Deep Love for the Communist Party and Chairman Mao by Li Mubai (1953, Picture 34) was published by East China People’s Fine Arts Publishing House; a New Year painting Happiness by Li Mubai (1959, Picture 35), was published by Tianjin Fine Arts Publishing House; a New Year picture Profound Friendship by Li Mubai (1959, Picture 36) was published by Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House.
B: A New Year picture Chairman Mao in Composing Poetry (1960, Picture 37) by Xie Zhiguang was published by Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House.
4. Influence of the Soviet paintings
The painting style and the choice of themes of Soviet leaders’ portraits had influenced the creation of portraits of Mao Zedong. Artists in China could not shake off this Soviet influence in their paintings even in the 1960s when the political relations between the two countries soured. At the high tide of anti-Soviet Union during the Cultural Revolution period, Chinese artists continued to draw on the experience of Soviet artists in creation concepts and modeling methods, and they did have some changes in their creation: to change the “grey tones” of the Soviet paintings into the revolutionary “red, bright and shining tones” in their own paintings.
A. A New Year picture Chairman Mao and Command-in-Chief Zhu De (1953, Picture 38) created by Ai Zhongxin was quite similar to an oil painting “Stalin and Voroshilov in Kremlin” (1938, Picture 39) by Gerasimov in the choice of content, the way of finding a view and the overall composition.
B. Sheng Xiaoyi’s way of creating images for a black-and-red wood engraving Long Live the Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought (1967, Picture 40) originated from a sketch entitled Portrait of Marx and Lenin (Picture 41) by a Soviet painter (whose name needs to be verified). The portraits of the “four great men” hanging over the rostrum of the Yang Jialing Central Auditorium in Yan’an in 1945 were also a copy of those of the Soviet paintings. This method of profile drawing produced a great impact on paintings later, and had directly affected the design for the bank note of 100 RMB yuan of the 1990 edition (Picture 42). However, the left-to-right order of the images on the bank note had been changed: the original order of “Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin-Mao Zedong” was changed to the order of “Zhu De-Liu Shaoqi-Zhou Enlai-Mao Zedong”. This design was not accepted later by the media in China.
C. From the oil painting The Youth of Lenin (Picture 43) by the Soviet artist B. …, we can find the trace of Liu Chunhua’s painting Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan. This influence of the Soviet leaders’ paintings lasted until 1970s, when we could still identify the trace from works by Chinese artists. To have a clear picture, let us compare Li Xiushi’s oil painting Strong Wind (1979, Picture 44) with Medvedev Vladimir’s canvas An October Wind (Picture 45).
III. Symbolization
Mao Zedong had once been deified. However, according to my information in hand now, the western icons and China’s Buddha paintings did not have a direct impact on the painting of Mao Zedong portraits. During the Cultural Revolution, even those painters for idolatry picture posters of Mao Zedong employed general painting format for deity pictures, or example, putting the deity on a focal position, with gold or yellow rays of light as settings. The light circle at the background of the image of Buddha and the light ring at the background of the image of an icon conveyed a kind of abstract implied meaning, they did not represent specific things. However, the round circle behind the image of Mao Zedong was the sun, and the rays in all directions were the rays of the sun.
We denied that the pictures of Buddha or icons had an influence on the creation of Mao Zedong portraits for two more reasons: first of all, painters of Mao’s portraits had not received any training in painting icons or Buddha, most of them were graduates from academies of fine arts (including Lu Xun Academy of Literature and Arts) which focused on western art, they were not folk art painters; secondly, although Mao Zedong had accepted the fact of his being deified and idolized for the need of class struggle, it seemed that he did not show any interest in pictures of Christianity or Buddhism; even if he was interested in them, he was not likely to make it public.
The sun in the portraits of Mao Zedong was the image that had the most symbolic meaning. Although the theme of “The East is Red, the Sun Has Risen” appeared on some paintings in 1950s, it was until the Cultural Revolution that people began to paint the image of Mao Zedong with the sun together.
Why did people compare Mao Zedong to the sun, or why did Mao Zedong accept the assumption that he was the sun incarnate? The most direct answer lay in the spread and the impact of the song The East Is Red. Before the origin of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, Akhenaten, king of Amarn in Egypt in the 14th century BC had endeavored to worship the sun as the sole god and tried to destroy all other gods and goddesses. According to some scholars, the King Akhenaten’s theory of worshipping a single god was in fact the prelude for the birth of Christianity. However, no religion which made the sun god or an idol came into being later, and Egypt resumed its policy of allowing the existence of various religions worshipping different gods.
It is now impossible to verify whether Mao Zedong’s interest in the sun has anything to do with this history of solar cult. But Mao did have an obsessive love for the sun. In 1949, after Mao met Stalin, Guo Moruo wrote a poem entitled An Unprecedented Grand Event, in which he said that “this meeting has been just like (Frederic) Engles’ first meeting with (Karl) Marx or Stalin’s first meeting with Lenin; the similarity therein is that they are all meetings between the revolutionary comrades-in-arms; the difference is that Mao and Stalin represent the peoples of the two great nations, with an East plus another East and a red star plus one more red star. Now, we have two suns shining over the world …” In another poem entitled On the Photograph of Chairman Mao Who Is Working Within the Cabinet of An Airplane, Guo wrote the following: “At an altitude of 10,000 meters, the plane is flying as steadily as if it stays on flat ground, it is no wonder that the cabin is steeped in doubly bright sunshine, because there are two suns, with one in the sky and another inside the plane.
A: Li Zongjin’s New Year picture The East Is Red (1954, Picture 46) was published by the People’s Fine Arts Publishing House. In this picture, there is not an image of the sun, which, we believe, is implied in the picture as a concept.
B. In the picture poster of Arm Our Minds with Mao Zedong Thought, Be a Brave Fighter of the Working Class (Picture 47), Wang Chaowen painted a round outer wheel for the relief sculpture. This round wheel will likely remind people of the sun. On another picture poster Have Technological Innovation under the Guidance of Mao Zedong Thought, the rays of light at the background of the portrait of Mao Zedong obviously symbolize the sun.
C. In the picture poster Chairman Mao Is the Red Sun in the Hearts of the Revolutionaries from around the World (published during the Culture Revolution period, Picture 49), the portrait of Mao Zedong is completely inlaid into the sun.
IV. Concepts
Mao Zedong was a political leader of a big country, and there were various complicated political and social concepts implied in the paintings of the image of Mao. During the creation period of Mao Zedong portraits, artists were largely dominated by different concepts and tried to express them through their paintings.
1. “Issue of Height”
Since the founding of New China, creation of Mao Zedong portraits had entered a new stage. Representative works during this period, which were mentioned above, included Luo Gongliu’s Chairman Mao in the Jinggangshan Mountains and Li Qi’s The Chairman Travels the Length and Breadth of the Whole Country. However, not all the paintings, after all, turned out as people wished. It is said that at a non-public talk in 1958, Mao Zedong implied that he was as tall as Stalin (if not taller than him), and artists had to reflect this fact accurately in painting. He complained: “On the paintings by Chinese artists in early 1950s, I always look shorter than Stalin. This reflects the spiritual pressure of the artists who blindly yielded to the Soviet Union at that time.”
In his reminiscences, Ye Zilong said that during the signing ceremony for the China-Soviet Alliance Treaty on February 14th, 1950, he noticed a hardly noticeable detail: when Mao Zedong and Stalin and other high ranking officials were taking a group photo, Stalin slightly moved a small step forward. When returned to the hotel, Ye Zilong mentioned this detail to Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong smiled and said: “Well, this makes us the same height!” Mao Zedong was about 1.80 meters tall, and Stalin was shorter. But they seemed about the same height in the picture.
The issue of height of the leaders’ images in paintings had in fact implied their relatively superiority or inferiority of political status. Starting from early 1950s, China began to use the sequence of “Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong” for order arrangement for these Communist leaders. However, in eyes of Chinese people during the Cultural Revolution period, the image of Mao Zedong was much higher than other four great men. Such a high status of Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution period was not only attributed to his role as a “genius” or deity in people’s eyes, but also attributed to his great historical revolutionary practice. .
Li Qi and Feng Zhen jointly painted the picture A Great Meeting (1951, Picture 50). This picture depicted the moment when Stalin met with Mao Zedong in the Soviet Union. The artists made painstaking efforts to treat the “issue of height” of the two leaders. At first glance, the image of Stalin seems taller than that of Mao Zedong in the picture. But if we follow the perspective principles adopted in the picture and put Stalin, who walked in front of Mao, on the same horizontal axis as that for Mao Zedong, we will find Stalin shorter than Mao Zedong.
It is interesting to note that, with the change of propaganda line, the height of leaders on pictures also changed. Take the following few picture posters as examples: Zhou Cheng in 1953 painted The Glory of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought Is Shining Over the New China (Picture 51), this picture shares the same theme with the picture posters created by “Shanxi Fine Arts Group”: Long Live the Great Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought (Picture 52), but there is an noticeable change in the treatment of the height of Mao Zedong and that of the four great men. And, the image of Mao Zedong is even lofty in the picture Mao Zedong Thought Is the Summit of the Contemporary Marxism-Leninism (Picture 53) created by Wang Zhaoda in 1968.
2. Issues of Size and Front-or-Side View
Similar to the “issue of height”, the ‘issue of size” under a specific historical circumstance also became an issue of superiority or inferiority of political status for the leaders. Influenced by the school of realism from the Soviet Union, artists in New China employed the technique of “Representative Image” instead of “Conceptional Image” in the treatment of space in oil paintings. Therefore, the image of Mao Zedong in almost all theme paintings was fairly close to the visual image that people got used to. However, crazy political concepts during the Cultural Revolution changed this means of artistic expression.
The oil painting The East Is Red (Picture 54) was created in 1967 by the Anti-Revisionism Corps of the Middle School attached to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Congress of the Red Guards of Beijing Middle Schools. The technique of “Representative Image” was introduced to the treatment of light and shade as well as space, whereas the technique of ““Conceptional Image” was obviously used in composition. At the focal position of the picture was the front view image of Mao Zedong. ; On the right side of Mao was Lin Biao, Mao’s successor, also with a front view, but in a smaller size; Zhou Enlai, the premier, was on the left side, with an even smaller size of side view imageon the analogy of this were the images of Chen Boda, Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing and other members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Pictures of ancient Chinese emperors only emphasized the image sequence rule from big size to small size (Picture 55), whereas the New Year picture the Magic Horses (Picture 56) stressed both the image sequence rule from big size to small size and from front view to side view. In our view, the idea of hierarchy expressed in the picture of The East Is Red is more similar to that displayed in western countries’ icon paintings during the Middle Ages, and the Byzantine inlaid picture the Miracle of the Loaves and fishes (Picture 57) is an example. From the following pictures, we can find how pictures with the same theme have transformed from the employment of the “Conceptional Image” to the “Representative Image”: a group creation (anonymous, needs to be verified) Chairman Mao Is with Us (1967, Picture 58), another group creation (anonymous, needs to be verified) Chairman Mao’s Heart and the Revolutionary Masses’ Beat as One (1967, Picture 59) and an oil painting Carry the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution Through to the End (Picture 60) jointly created by Hou Yimin, Deng Shu, Jin Shangyi, Zhan Jianjun, Luo Gongliu, Yuan Hao and Yang Guilin.
3. Issue of Left Side View and Right Side View
Most of Mao Zedong’s head profiles, especially those on souvenir badges, were of left side view. At initial stage, the popularization of these left side head portraits was probably due to the widely spread of the relief sculpture of Mao Zedong’s portrait created by Wang Chaowen in 1950. This relief sculpture was regarded as somewhat an official portrait of Mao Zedong. In ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece, left-sided or right-sided profiles on souvenir badges did not seem to convey specific meanings. Generally speaking, there were more left-sided profiles than the right-sided ones, and the reason might be that most of these profiles were painted by right-handed painters. During the Cultural Revolution, almost all the portraits on official souvenir badges of Mao Zedong were left-sided profiles, but the reason was that the painters were dominated by a concept: Mao Zedong supported the Leftists (Picture 61).
V. Political Situation and Artistic Destiny
Among the art works depicting Mao Zedong, quite a number of them became controversial works in China’s history of fine arts because of some historical events and changes of artistic expression. The “Gao Gang Incident”(in which Political Bureau member Gao Gang was ousted in December 1953 for being accused of illicitly trying to seize control of the party) and the “Cultural Revolution” forced Dong Xiwen, who painted the oil painting Grand Ceremony for the Founding of New China (1953, Picture 62), to make “head transplant operations” for some images on the picture; Zhong Han and Shi Lu were criticized because Zhong did not paint a front view image of Mao Zedong in his oil painting By the Yanhe River (1963, Picture 63), whereas Shi put Mao Zedong on sheer precipice and overhanging rocks in his traditional Chinese painting Fighting Successively In Different Parts of the South and the North; Hou Yimin, painter of the oil painting Comrade Liu Shaoqi and Miners in Anyuan (1960, Picture 64), created another oil painting Chairman Mao with Workers in Anyuan (1976, Picture 65) because of the need of the changing “political situation” and in the hope of clarifying who was the leader of workers’ movements in China. Such kind of paintings often put the painters in an embarrassing situation, and even changed their destinies.
In the book entitled Illustrated History of Fine Arts Works of New China from 1966 to 1976, we have had a fairly detailed account of the fate of the picture Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan by Liu Chunhua, so we will not repeat the account in this article. In our view, it is worth mentioning two more oil paintings with dramatic stories behind them during the Cultural Revolution, and the fates of the two pictures were more or less related with the painting Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan.
1. The oil painting Man's World Is Mutable, Seas Become Mulberry Fields - Chairman Mao Is Inspecting Different Parts South and North of the Yangtze River created by Zhen Tiansheng, Zhou Ruiwen and Xu Junxuan
To remind its readers of the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Cultural Revolution, the May issue of the American Newsweek magazine carried on the front cover an oil painting entitled Man's World Is Mutable, Seas Become Mulberry Fields - Chairman Mao Is Inspecting Different Parts South and North of the Yangtze River (Picture 66). This picture was painted in 1967 by a young teacher named Zheng Tiansheng and his colleagues with Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (today’s China Academy of Fine Arts). This picture spread widely at that time, it could be seen on walls of Shanghai Railway Station, in main streets and roads and other public places of major cities in southern China. The picture had even been printed on various ornament objects. However, the memory of this picture had faded from people’s mind within two years because of a specific historical reason.
Mao Zedong inspected a number of important provinces in northern, central southern and eastern parts of China in July 1967, when there had emerged an increasingly fierce factional strife among the Red Guards in different parts of the country. Mao Zedong felt that the situation might be out of control, so he decided to make an inspection tour in person. He expressed his dissatisfaction of some personality cult slogans for him, such as “the four greats” (the Great Teacher, the Great Leader, the Great Helmsman and the Great Commander) and “being healthy forever”. He also pointed out the importance of “sticking to verbal struggle instead of resorting to violence” and “realizing an alliance of rivaling factions”. In some talks, he criticized the rebels (for their extreme activities). This inspection tour marked the end to stormy mass movements. This was the political background for the birth of the oil painting Man's World Is Mutable, Seas Become Mulberry Fields - Chairman Mao Is Inspecting Different Parts South and North of the Yangtze River. To gain political benefits, Zhang Yongsheng, a rebellion leader of Zhejiang province and a student of Print Department of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, went to Beijing in May 1968 and sent to Jiang Qing a batch of local paintings singing the praises of Mao Zedong and asked her to check and approve. From the mimeograph journals at that time, we read these accounts: “After Jiang Qing reviewed a number of pictures portraying the great leader created by the Revolutionary Committee of the (Zhejiang) Academy of Fine Arts during the Cultural Revolution period, she gave this instruction: ‘You need to be specially cautious in painting portraits of the Chairman, or you will fail. You can’t paint in a rough and slipshod way.’ Jiang Qing’s comment on the picture of Man's World Is Mutable, Seas Become Mulberry Fields - Chairman Mao Is Inspecting Different Parts South and North of the Yangtze River was largely positive, but at the same time, she also criticized: ‘It’s good that the masses praise the picture. But we can still find problems when we study the details carefully. For example, the setting is too complicated, and the lower parts of the cheeks look uneasy and the treatment of the right hand is not perfect. If you want to highlight the figure, you can’t have a too complicated setting… Recently, I reviewed an oil painting with the theme of Chairman Mao going to Anyuan, it’s extraordinary, exactly depicting the spirit and makings of the Chairman.’”
Sending the picture Man's World Is Mutable, Seas Become Mulberry Fields - Chairman Mao Is Inspecting Different Parts South and North of the Yangtze River to Jing Qing to review had not brought to Zhang Yongsheng any political benefits however, but made Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan a model picture of its kind during the Cultural Revolution. The picture Man's World Is Mutable, Seas Become Mulberry Fields - Chairman Mao Is Inspecting Different Parts South and North of the Yangtze River did not get popular because of different reasons. Apart from those superficial problems mentioned by Jiang Qing, the real reason was that Zhang Yongsheng, lack of consciousness for the more complicated class struggle, was not aware that the background for the picture turned out to be Mao Zedong’s criticism of the ultra-Left line represented by Jiang Qing. In addition, there was a rumor going that Jiang Qing thought that Mao Zedong’s posture in that picture was not Mao’s posture, and she believed that it was a copy from the image of Stalin on a Soviet oil painting by Fyodor Shurpin: the Morning of Our Motherland (1946, Picture 67).
2. The oil painting Workers and Peasants Are Wakened in their Millions
created by Fang Zengxian and other artists
Although Chairman Mao Goes to Anyan became a model picture of the Cultural Revolution owing to Jiang Qing’s great effort in promotion, artists in Zhejiang province still had such a view: Chairman Mao Goes to Anyan was perfect in conception and composition when portraying the glorious image of Chairman Mao, but its artistic treatment did not displayed the principle (set by Chairman Mao for developing art): “Make the past serve the present and foreign things serve China, Let a hundred flowers blossom, weed through the old to bring forth the new”. In a word, it was largely a western-styled oil painting. Based on this view from the experts of the painting circle, Zhang Yongsheng mobilized some teachers and students from different faculties of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts for a large-scaled creation of works depicting the magnificent contributions Mao Zedong made during various historical periods, in the hope of producing a batch of works which could stand close scrutiny from artistic angle. In 1968, after Fang Zengxian (a teacher) and other two students from the Traditional Chinese Painting Faculty received an assignment of creating a picture with the theme of Mao Zedong in Anyuan, they went to Anyuan to observe and learn from real life for some time, gathered some materials for the painting, and decided to create a large-scaled brush painting. When Fang Zengxian finished a preliminary drawing, he talked to Zhang Yongsheng that it would not be suitable to paint an eight-square-meter picture with the artistic form of brush painting, because it was difficult to control the effect of the finished picture without a current side-view photograph of Mao Zedong for reference, and traditional Chinese painting could not match oil painting in its power of expression during the then “fiery years”. Fang Zengxian suggested to paint this picture with the techniques of oil painting, and Zhang Yongsheng agreed. According to Fang Zengxian’s reminiscences, he created the image of Mao Zedong for the picture based on a profile of Mao in his middle-age (Mao Zedong Was Making a Speech at a Meeting on Rectification in Yan’an in 1942,, Picture 68). It took him half a month to finish the image painting.
The images were largely painted with zero diopter, whereas costumes and props were painted with the technique of freehand brushwork in traditional Chinese painting (characterized by vivid expression and bold outline). The picture conveyed an extremely strong effect, brimming with vitality. Although the figures’ postures and the overall composition were similar to those of Soviet leaders’ portraits in 1930s and 1940s, the picture on the whole displayed striking features of traditional Chinese painting. This picture was finished with oil painting materials, however, the artists applied many expressive techniques of brush painting to the treatment of outlines, colors and contrast of light and shade. Half of the space was reserved as blank space, which made the figures very prominent. Props and other less important details were boldly eliminated, and the forward-and-backward relationship between objects was expressed with brush painting’s techniques in the use of ink to produce an effect of density or dilution, instead of using western painting’s perspective principles. Regarding to the method of coloring, the painter largely applied the colors lightly by mixing black and other oil colors. This produced an effect quite similar to traditional Chinese painting’s effect of ink and water, the colors looked rich and strong as well as lively. Using the technique of outline drawing to stress the figure composition was a distinguished characteristic of Zhejiang province’s brush painting style, and the representative artists for this style were Fang Zengxian, Chou Changgu and Li Zhenjian. We can say that this picture, compared with other pictures with the theme of Mao Zedong, was outstanding for its rigorous approach in figure portraying and distinct style. We should admit that this oil picture entitled Workers and Peasants Are Wakened in their Millions is a piece of excellent works with high artistic value, and it accorded exactly with the demands of the propaganda campaign at that time. Zhang Yongsheng strived to make this picture an example of “making the past serve the present and foreign things serve China”, similar to the status of an example in music circle: modern Beijing opera The Red Lantern accompanied by piano. However, Jiang Qing took exception to the picture after she reviewed it. In her view, it was not necessary to paint a traditional Chinese painting with oil painting materials, and as a result, it was not necessary either to set it as an “example” for the fine arts circle, replacing the oil painting Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan. Today, there is no harm for us to imagine: if Jiang Qing had enough knowledge of the art histories of China and western countries – just as she had enough knowledge of dramas of China and western countries – she might have greatly admired Fang Zengxian’s oil painting, which was “making the past serve the present and foreign things serve China”; she might also set it as a “model painting” for the fine arts circle and vigorously promoted it. If that was the case, painting art during the Cultural Revolution period would be a completely different picture. The fate of the oil painting Workers and Peasants Are Wakened in their Millions was entirely contrary to the expectations of officials and artists of the fine arts field in Zhejiang province. Although some major publications in Zhejiang province had published this picture, some even published the color picture in a full spread page, the memory of the picture soon faded from people’s mind.
Mao Zedong had led China’s revolution for half a century. During this period, China’s society had undergone dramatic transformation, and China art had experienced unprecedented changes: its notion of modeling and its form of expression had been deeply stamped with the brand of that era. The art during this period has become an extremely special chapter in the history of world art. In this chapter, Mao Zedong was a very prominent theme. Although Mao Zedong had not pointed out a specific way for the development of China’s fine arts, and he had not given any specific comments either on art works portraying him, we can still clearly sense the aesthetics atmosphere of that era through analysis of art works about him. We can also understand how this aesthetics atmosphere was influenced by Mao Zedong’s political doctrine as well as the society under his leadership, see a moving scene which displayed how Chinese artists conducted art creations with revolutionary passion and observe the operation system, which was quite different from those of ancient Chinese traditional system and modern western system, for art creation, appreciation, checking and approving, dissemination and collection. All these observations will help us re-establish our knowledge of the social function of art.