The China Project

83 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection GU Wenda Night ambush c.1985 and Lay down your arms ( Jiao qiang bu sha ) 1985 are two of only six existing oil paintings by Gu Wenda. Although his output was large, he suffered persecution during the Cultural Revolution and many of his paintings and sketchbooks were destroyed. These two paintings draw on traditions of Chinese folk art, Revolutionary Realism and communist propaganda art, in which Gu was well versed. Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, art played a strong propaganda role. Initially, the Chinese Communist Party sought inspiration in the Soviet Union’s style of Socialist Realism, with its focus on urban scenes and the worker. However, by the late 1950s, Mao Zedong was dissatisfied with the gloominess of what had become a state-enforced style, and insisted that Socialist Realism be replaced by a ‘fusion of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism’. He declared that art should ‘convey the most romantic and glamorous views of the motherland; social, economic and political triumphs; the strength, courage, and resourcefulness of the people; and the wisdom of their leaders’. 1 Night ambush depicts a young Japanese soldier who is asleep on duty and about to be captured by Chinese communist soldiers. In Lay down your arms ( Jiao qiang bu sha ), a heroic and uniformed Eighth Route Army soldier forces terrified Japanese soldiers to discard their weapons; the Chinese soldier is mounted on a rearing stallion, while the Japanese soldiers are shown cowering on their country’s crumpled flag. In 1938, Gu himself signed up with the Communist Party’s Eighth Route Army and became a bugle player. The scenes represented in these paintings may have been partially inspired by Gu’s own experiences, although each is heavily idealised and ideological. Both paintings send a clear message about the moral uprightness and resourcefulness of the Chinese soldiers, and the punishment meted out to their cowardly and less dutiful enemies. These pejorative depictions of the Japanese soldiers recall the significant series of events that led to Mao Zedong’s Long March (1934–35). During this period, Japan’s colonising push into China was taking place. Although it was Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek and his army who were primarily involved in fighting the Japanese, Gu Wenda was endorsed to paint this subject, indicative of the propagandist impulse to narrow the perspective on a complex historical event. endnote 1 Stefan Landsberger, ‘To read too many books is harmful’, in Books In Chinese Propaganda Posters: Objects of Veneration, Subjects of Destruction [exhibition catalogue], Universiteit Leiden. Faculteit der Letteren. Sinologisch Institut, Leiden, Netherlands, 2004. opposite Lay down your arms ( Jiao qiang bu sha ) 1985 Oil on canvas / 199.7 x 146.5cm / Gift of Nicholas Jose and Claire Roberts through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2007 above Gu Wenda / Guo Zhonglian Night ambush c.1985 Oil on canvas / 181.1 x 141cm / Gift of Nicholas Jose and Claire Roberts through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2007