The Founding Ceremony of the Nation
| The Founding Ceremony of the Nation | |
|---|---|
| Chinese: 開國大典, Pinyin: Kaiguo dadian | |
1967 revision
|
|
| Artist | Dong Xiwen |
| Year | 1953. Revised 1954, 1967 |
| Type | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 229 cm × 400 cm (90 in × 160 in) |
| Location | National Museum of China, Beijing |
The Founding Ceremony of the Nation (Pinyin: Kaiguo dadian, Chinese: 开国大典) (or The Founding of the Nation) is a 1953 oil painting by the Chinese artist Dong Xiwen (董希文). It depicts Mao Zedong and other communist leaders inaugurating the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949. A prominent example of Chinese art influenced by Soviet realism, it is one of the most-reproduced paintings of the People's Republic. The work was repeatedly revised, and a replica painting made to accommodate further changes, as those it depicted fell from power, and later were rehabilitated.
After the communists took control of China, they sought to memorialize their struggle and triumph with artworks. Dong was tasked with the commission of a visual representation of the October 1 ceremony, which he had attended. He viewed it as essential that the painting show both the people and their leaders. After three months, he completed an oil painting in a folk art style, drawing upon Chinese art history for the contemporary subject. The success of the painting was assured when Mao viewed it and liked it, and it was reproduced in large numbers for display in the home.
The 1954 purge of Gao Gang from the government resulted in Dong being required to remove him from the painting. Gao's departure was not the last, as Dong was required to remove Liu Shaoqi in 1967. The winds of political fortune continued to shift, resulting in a reproduction being painted by other artists in 1972 to accommodate another deletion. That replica was modified in 1979 to include the purged individuals, who had been rehabilitated. Both canvases are in the National Museum of China in Beijing.
Following the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949, communists quickly took control of art in China. The socialist realism that was characteristic of Soviet art came to be highly influential in the People's Republic. The new government proposed a series of paintings, preferably in oil, to memorialize the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and its triumph in 1949. To this end, in December 1950, arts official Wang Yeqiu proposed to deputy Minister of Culture Zhou Yang that there be an art exhibition the following year to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Party in China. Wang had toured the Soviet Union and observed its art, with which he was greatly impressed, and he proposed that sculptures and paintings be exhibited depicting the CPC's history, for eventual inclusion in the planned Museum of the Chinese Revolution. Even before gaining full control of the country, the CPC had used art as propaganda, a technique especially effective as much of the Chinese population was then illiterate. Wang's proposal was preliminarily approved in March 1951, and a committee, including the art critic and official Jiang Feng, was appointed to seek suitable artists. Although nearly 100 paintings were produced for the 1951 exhibition, not enough were found to be suitable, and it was cancelled.
...
Wikipedia