Mao's Era

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Artist Zhao Tianqi (Chinese, b. 1968)

Culture Chinese

Title Mao's Era

Date 2004

Medium Color silkscreen on paper

Dimensions Image: 26 1/4 x 16 1/8 in. (66.7 x 41 cm)
Sheet (sheet is not exactly even, height is about 1/16 off on either si): 28 7/8 x 20 7/8 in. (73.3 x 53 cm)

Credit Line Gift of Mary Alice & Norman Crampton, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 2015.70

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About this Work

The Chinese socialist realist prints of the 1940s are unapologetic tools of communist propaganda. Championed by Mao Zedong in a speech given in 1942 at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, Mao saw art as a means to educate, glorify the masses, and celebrate the worker. In Communist China, artistic expression-- potent symbols of political and social content--was controlled, vetted, and disseminated by the state.

Zhao revisits the bold bright colors of Chinese propaganda posters in her work, but by replacing guns or farm tools with pens and writing brushes, Zhao foregrounds the tools of propaganda.

Provenance
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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Mao's Era | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=2015.70