Paintings Chinese Cultural Revolution

Red, yellow and blue, and the Chairman everywhere. Chinese Cultural Revolution posters and prints are propaganda art: lithographs and woodblock-style posters printed from the early 1950s through the late 1960s, years in which the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976 put Chairman Mao’s portrait on every wall. Mao rises above processions of happy workers, soldiers stand ready, quotations from the Little Red Book run in bold characters. Suites such as Be Prepared, issued as sets of color lithographs, show the period’s industry, agriculture and military in idealized scenes, and a Red Army field map adds a document of the era.

The graphic punch of these sheets suits modern rooms. Framed in black or simple steel and hung in a grid, they hold their own beside a leather sofa, steel shelving or a Ming-style elm table. Persuasion, in primary colors.