This painting is a surreal juxtaposition of Mao with Marcel Duchamp’s urinal ready-made Fountain (1917). Shi Xinning’s work is based on an original photograph featuring the Chairman’s visit to an industrial product fair. His placement of Mao in an unrealistic context is a play on history writing and presents his exploration of an alternate China. Shi’s artistic practice often focuses on themes related to the Cultural Revolution. In the early 2000s, he began to incorporate Mao into Western historical events in his paintings, in the style of socialist realism.
M+ acknowledges the following sources of knowledge used in preparing this interactive (in alphabetical order):
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