China Girl
Qi Zhilong
祁志龙
Production date
2001
Object Detail
Media
oil on canvas
Measurements
162 x 80 cm
Notes
One of a series of paintings by Qi Zhilong of young women in Cultural Revolution Red Guard uniforms against plain coloured backgrounds, these works reflect a degree of nostalgia for China’s revolutionary period. They brought him to international attention during the heyday of the ‘Political Pop’ movement, when contemporary artists returned to Cultural Revolution and Mao imagery and found western collectors eager to acquire such images. Qi Zhilong’s works, however, do not satirise or critique the Mao era in the same way as those of peers such as Wang Guangyi or Yu Youhan. Instead, they align more closely with the classical Chinese tradition of depicting ‘beauties’– although these particular beauties might be armed. China Girl (2001) is an image filled with yearning and memory. She is an object for the male gaze, certainly, with her parted red lips echoing the red of her badge, but her slightly awkward stance also reminds us that during the madness of the Cultural Revolution, terrible violence was meted out to those deemed insufficiently revolutionary by teenagers dressed just like this.
Accession number
2006.048