Peasants Exposing Tiger Tattoos to Workers, Soldiers and Intellectuals
Yang Shen
杨深
Production date
2017
Object Detail
Media
oil on canvas
Measurements
50 x 60 cm
Notes
Yang’s 2017 series of paintings – Workers Exposing Panda Tattoos to Peasants, Soldiers and Intellectuals; Peasants Exposing Tiger Tattoos to Workers, Soldiers and Intellectuals; Soldiers Exposing Bat Tattoos to Workers, Peasants and Intellectuals; and Intellectuals Exposing Pegasus Tattoos to Workers, Peasants and Soldiers – reference his early exposure to propaganda. At the time the Chinese population was classified in this way; everyone was familiar with the theme of gong, nong, bing (‘workers, peasants, soldiers’), found even in the lyrics of popular songs. Loosely outlined figures recognisable by their clothing – Mao suits and caps for the workers, western clothing and spectacles for the intellectuals, army uniforms for the soldiers and the traditional headscarf of the peasant farmer – flex their muscles on a background of beige impasto. The animal in each tattoo appears as a small, stencilled image in a corner. Yang’s inspiration came from National Day at Ten O’Clock, a comic book published in China in the 1980s, which was adapted from a 1953 anti-spy film of the same name.
Accession number
2018.035