[Joseonggwan's Global Humanities Journey] An Artist Who Mocked 'Mao'... Weapon: Colorful Silkscreen

Not long ago, on a Saturday afternoon, I visited the Tang Contemporary Art exhibition in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. I rarely go out on weekends, but this day was an exception. It was because of the solo exhibition of Ai Weiwei (艾未未, 66), a Chinese dissident artist, held at this museum.

I came across a review of this exhibition in a newspaper and thought, "Maybe I should go." Then, after reading the "2023 North Korea Human Rights Report," I decided to make a "weekend outing." The following passage from the "2023 North Korea Human Rights Report" was the decisive trigger for me.

Andy Warhol's 'Portrait of Mao'. Photo by Seonggwan Cho

"A six-month pregnant woman was executed in 2017 for pointing her finger at a portrait of Kim Il-sung. Six teenagers aged 16 to 17 were publicly shot in Wonsan in 2015 for watching Korean dramas..."

What kind of crime is it to point a finger at Kim Il-sung's portrait? Fingers are meant to point at something. Anger welled up inside me. If I had been born in North Korea, my child could have suffered such a fate. I could not help but rush to Ai Weiwei's exhibition hall.

Three men who threw eggs at 'Mao Zedong' in Tiananmen Square in 1989

Let's take a time machine back to the summer of 1989 in Beijing. In Tiananmen Square, university students were protesting for democratization. The protests, which began on April 15, were initially led by students. However, people from all over the country joined, filling Tiananmen Square and prolonging the demonstrations.

One end of Tiananmen Square connects to the Forbidden City (紫禁城). Crossing the moat surrounding the Forbidden City, one can see a gate displaying a portrait of Mao Zedong (毛澤東, hereafter Mao). Among the protesters in Tiananmen Square that day were three men who had come from the provinces with determination. They left the crowd, crossed the moat bridge, and went under Mao's portrait. They opened their bags and took out packages of eggs they had prepared. They pierced small holes in the eggshells with needles and filled them with red, black, yellow, and blue paint. Using all their strength, they threw the eggs at the portrait. Some eggs broke on the wall without reaching the portrait due to lack of force. A few eggs hit Mao's portrait. Red, blue, and black paint dripped down. Among them, the red paint left a fairly distinct mark on Mao's blue People's Liberation Army uniform.

Protesters filling Tiananmen Square in 1989. Photo by Google

It was like throwing eggs at a rock. But they had no other choice. This was the only way to resist the suffocating one-party dictatorship of the Communist Party. The three men were arrested on the spot by the public security forces and tried for counter-revolutionary sabotage and incitement. The ringleader was sentenced to life imprisonment, and the other two received 20 and 16 years respectively.

The Tiananmen Square protests ended on June 4 with a bloody crackdown by the military. The People's Liberation Army, led by tanks, fired on the protesters. The square was soaked in blood. The incident, known as the "Tiananmen Square protests," "Tiananmen Square massacre," or "June 4th cleanup," has an unknown death toll. It is reported to be at least several hundred to possibly thousands.

'Traces Left on Mao's Portrait' Photo by Seonggwan Jo

In the summer of 1989, Ai Weiwei was 32 years old. The artist vowed never to forget the three men who threw eggs. Ai Weiwei's weapon is not a brush but Lego blocks. Lego is a children's toy. There is nothing that cannot be made with Lego. You can try everything. Lego symbolizes infinite creativity and infinite freedom! Since being expelled from China in 2014, he has wandered free countries like the UK, creating works criticizing totalitarian China. In 2019, "Traces Left on Mao's Portrait" (308X231cm) was finally born. The resistance of the three Chinese men buried in his heart was sublimated into art after 30 years.

Tang Contemporary Art is located in the basement. Taking the elevator down and turning around, the controversial work greets visitors. All artworks should be viewed from a distance and then approached closely for appreciation. This is especially true for Ai Weiwei's work made by attaching Lego pieces one by one. From the museum entrance, it looks like a white canvas with meaningless paint stains.

Ai Weiwei in 2017. Photo by Wikipedia

In China, Mao's portrait is sacred and inviolable. No artistic imagination is allowed regarding Mao's portrait. It was the same in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and remains so today. No freedom of expression is permitted in China. Ai Weiwei metaphorically represented the situation of that day only with paint traces, omitting the portrait of the communist dictator.

Andy Warhol's creation of 'Mao with thick lipstick'

Let's move the scene to New York in the late 1960s. New York is a city of crossover. Freedom of expression was infinite, and there were no boundaries between genres. Anything could be challenged, and anyone with talent was given opportunities. Nam June Paik, who settled in New York after Japan and Germany, mingled with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and finally blossomed a new world called media art.

On one side of Manhattan, a second-generation Slovak immigrant sought new art. It was Andy Warhol. Seeing the success of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, he decided not to paint portraits or landscapes. Instead, he painted Campbell's soup cans, which Americans ate daily, and exhibited them. Established painters were angry at Warhol, but the public cheered. This was the birth of Warhol's pop art.

Warhol made another attempt. He decided to create portraits using the silkscreen technique. Why bother painting portraits with brushes? Just make slight variations and print them with silkscreen. The silkscreen technique is well known to artists who do decalcomania-like art, but Warhol was the first to decide to create portraits this way.

In August 1962, Marilyn Monroe died of drug abuse in LA. Warhol created a portrait using a still photo from Monroe's breakout film "Niagara." It was "Saint Marilyn of Sorrow."

When the new portrait was born through the silkscreen technique, the art world in New York and worldwide was shocked. Warhol produced portraits of world celebrities using this method. Eventually, world-famous figures commissioned Warhol for portraits.

Andy Warhol's 'Portrait of Mao' series. Photo by Seonggwan Cho

In 1972, Mao invited President Nixon to China. The visit of the US president to China was global news. This historic event sparked Warhol's imagination. He produced portraits of Mao by freely changing the color tones of Mao's portrait photos. Warhol painted red lipstick on Mao's lips, changed the People's Liberation Army uniform to red, and painted the background light green. Instantly, Mao's authoritative atmosphere evaporated, and a cute leader image was born. Americans no longer needed to fear communism. Warhol produced 199 portraits of Mao by 1973. The public, unable to afford originals, sought reproductions. Americans freely mocked the absolute Chinese ruler hanging in their living rooms or dining rooms.

About ten years later, in 1989, the three men who threw eggs at Mao's portrait in Tiananmen Square were sentenced to heavy prison terms. The dissident artist Ai Weiwei remains cautious. In 2021, at the held at The Hyundai in Yeouido, Seoul, "Mao with thick lipstick" was displayed. This was the first time the "Mao portrait" series was exhibited in Korea.