Cultural Revolution Art & Posters

Red ink and bold slogans, printed for the wall of a factory or a school. Cultural Revolution posters, lithographs and prints from China here date mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. Propaganda posters of the period were produced in enormous numbers, showing Mao, workers, peasants and soldiers in bright, confident color. A framed screenprint from Hebei shows Mao with the people’s navy, and a poster dated 1970 comes from the height of the era.

Most of the posters are ink on paper, with lithographs and smaller prints among them, and two framed vintage photographs from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, from about 1969, add a documentary note. Many are unframed and ready for a frame of choice. Hang a poster in a stairwell or a kitchen, where the color can work at full volume. Propaganda, now mostly persuading people to look again.