How have the politics of China affected Chinese art since 1949?

While visiting China I will interview four artists. I plan to talk to two young artists from BPU, and two older artists who lived through the Cultural Revolution. Second, I will be doing fieldwork. I will be discovering and researching where art is preserved as well as studying Chinese paintings from each era I am focusing on. This entails visiting museums in both Shanghai and Beijing. While visiting these museums I would like to talk to the art curators and use their knowledge as a resource. They could have some very helpful insight on how politics and art have interrelated since 1949, as well as inside knowledge on the world of Chinese painting. Lastly, I will be collecting documentation. These documents will consist of books, brochures and other information I find in China that directly relate to my project.

The classification of art for this research paper is Chinese painting. For centuries art has been an important part of Chinese culture. It has recorded history, and been the visual reflection of China's political struggles and developments. For decades the Communist party has tried to destroy the "old." From 1949-1966, the years of the Communist Revolution, socialist realism developed within China. During this time there was a strong effort to cast out the western influences within China's walls. In the years of 1966-1976, the Cultural Revolution attempted to eliminate the "old" by establishing the four olds. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, which is now called the post-Mao era, China has sought to encompass the "new" while preserving the "old." Its establishment stemmed from Deng Xiaoping's 4 basic principles. These principles have initiated a struggle between the preservation of history and establishing a place for modernization. Art and politics have been intertwined by use of propaganda and censorship by Chinese dictators for decades. I will examine the conclusion that Chinese art has been the vehicle for the destruction of the "old" as well as a censored voice in China since 1949.