Seeing Red
By Ann Morrison
In cultural terms, Chinese revolutionary zeal is often remembered more for what it destroyed — temples, monuments, reputations, lives — than for what it created. But "Art and China's Revolution," an exhibition at the Asia Society in New York City until Jan. 11, presents a fascinating look at an artistic development that came into being between the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949 and its economic liberalization in 1978 — namely, the new visual aesthetic of socialist realism with Chinese characteristics.
As Mao Zedong saw it, art was to be accessible to the masses and not the exclusive province of an intellectual élite. Painting and sculpture, as well as fiction, music, theater and ballet, were to reflect new common values, not individual ideas or feelings. The products of this "art for politics' sake" were mostly optimistic in spirit and patriotic in purpose.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1865828,00.html