| Chapter 1: | The Fate of a Painting |
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revisionist. That I was selected to join the Art Class was a stroke of good luck, sheer enjoyment, and I formed many lasting friendships there.
Hao Boyi was not a CPC member. His father had been executed, so he had to be careful to avoid running afoul of politics. He ran the Art Class successfully for some years and nurtured many artists. His students became university professors or officials in the China Artists Association, and an even greater number became professional painters. During my time at the Corps Headquarters I was sketching the moment I got up in the morning, so by 1973 I had filled over twenty sketchbooks with drawings and studies for oil paintings, most of them figurative. When I painted Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland, I had developed considerable skill in sketching from life as well as painting. Most of Hao’s students were only allowed to work at printmaking, but I was amongst the privileged few whom he allowed to do oil painting.
May 1972 was the thirtieth anniversary of Mao’s legendary 1942 Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, and to celebrate the occasion Jiang Qing organized the First National Art Exhibition, during which it was announced that in October 1974 the Second National Art Exhibition would be held to celebrate Mao’s founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Because Cultural Revolution ideology emphasized the role of workers, peasants, and soldiers in the national superstructure, all provincial work units had been mobilizing workers, peasants, and soldiers in the work of art production. Our Art Class was in part such a response. We students had been sent to farm villages and military divisions; as such, we had joined the ranks of workers, peasants, and soldiers. It was in this context that we were to draw subject matter from our personal experiences. However, regulations stipulated that we were not to paint ourselves because as individuals we still ranked as “petit bourgeois in need of rectification.” Our works could only portray themes glorifying heroic workers, peasants, and soldiers. In Tasting Snow on the Wanda Mountains (1972) I drew on my experience of eating snow to quench my thirst while working as a logger, although the person depicted had to be changed,