Founding Ceremony of PRC: Ma Baozhong’s Neo-Historicism Paintings
On October 1, 2009, renowned artist Ma Baozhong’s solo exhibition “Founding Ceremony of PRC: Ma Baozhong’s Neo-Historicism Paintings” will be held in SZ Art Center, showing Ma Bazhong’s recent achievements of his subject research into Dong Xiwen’s oil painting “Founding Ceremony of PRC”.
Countless cases of modifying images in paintings could be found in Chinese modern art history, and Dong Xiwen’s “Founding Ceremony of PRC” (1953) could be the most representative. The involvement of political power and the changing of times caused several modifications of this painting, by the artist himself, and others like Jin Shangyi, Yan Zhenduo and Ye Wulin. The images changing became something ridiculous and helpless in Chinese modern art history.
Based on the misfortunate fate of “Founding Ceremony of PRC” and his own understanding of this work as well as the historical characters in it, Ma Baozhong created some large paintings and groups of small paintings by adopting his unique network structuralistic painting language, discussing academic subjects like the hidden politics and power behind the painting modification, the fate of characters, the truth in history, and the verity of history. Some research files and historical photos about “Founding Ceremony of PRC” will also be shown in the exhibition, along with the video of TV interview with those artists who are involved in the modification. This exhibition is aimed to provide some important and specific case for the modification and rewriting of Chinese modern history as well as Chinese modern and contemporary art history.
SZ Art Center has successfully held a series of academic exhibitions, and Duan Jun, curator of this exhibition, believes Ma Baozhong belongs to the few famous artists who still persist in academic study. In this solo exhibition, Ma Baozhong studies history in an artistic way, and in turn studies art in a historical way. The title “Neo-Historicism Paintings” is to emphasize his approach to study; he does not request the viewers to take everything in the exhibition as the truth of history, because one of the most important features of “Neo-Historicism Painting” is that, the author himself doesn’t even believe whatever he paints is 100% true, but hopes to reveal why the truth of history has to be modified step by step. Ma Baozhong kindly reminds the viewers that we shouldn’t be bound by the so-called truth in front of our eyes, but should avoid being passively misled by the account and modification of history, including the very exhibition of Ma Baozhong himself.
“Neo-Historicism Painting” focuses more on the hidden elements like anecdotes, tricks, shameless survival, etc., which are usually ignored by the traditional historical painting. Ma Baozhong discovered what hides behind the modification of the painting “Founding Ceremony of PRC” is a whole set of discipline and ideology. This solo exhibition shows his consistent focus on political figures and historical events, with its breakthrough of Ma Bazhong’s neo-historicism approach, of the practical significance in his subject research, and meanwhile, of his consideration about the diversity and richness of exhibition.
【编辑：张瑜】
编辑：admin