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November 3, 2019
Communist Party of China and the Chinese Art
With the Cultural Revolution, there was the destruction of many cultural treasures, and various arts and crafts were prohibited. The Communist Party of China compelled all artists in China after it rose to power in 1949 to adhere to the party’s line on art. This was a clear indicator that the Communist Party of China wanted to adopt social realism, which advocated for the overtly didactic art style that advocated for communist ideas.
Before 1949, Chinese art was meant to serve the people and not political interests. Further, the revolutionary romanticism was forced on all Chinese artists during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, but during its healing years, most artists returned back to their revived folk-art styles and the more personal styles. After 1949 the Communist party encouraged art that was independent of politics, but during the Cultural Revolution, artists were forced to paint whatever was politically relevant despite their feelings. In the year 1950, the China Communist Party sent western-style artists for retraining in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries for them to further socialist realism through art. All the restrictions on art, as seen by the Communist Party of China, proved that art could be dangerous and hence the need for its restriction. However, some of the restrictions were to favor the party’s agenda, as in the case of commissioning Chinese painters by officials from the party to come up with works with predetermined meanings. However, despite the dominance by the party, painters retained their freedom to use colors and brushwork in undertaking their art, but the revolutionary paintings were made to accommodate the agendas of leaders.
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