Sisyphus
Wu Junyong
吴俊勇
Production date
2008
Object Detail
Media
oil on canvas
Measurements
40 x 40 cm
Notes
Wu Junyong loves fables, fairytales and parables, and his paintings are moral allegories. He casts a sharply critical eye on the ills of contemporary society – brazen corruption, the misuse of power, and greed. Wu describes himself as a romantic revolutionary and a disillusioned idealist. Many works feature male figures engaged in pointless, repetitive labour or being punished in cruel ways. Here, an aging, overweight Sisyphus rolls his rock uphill, straining to achieve the impossible. But Wu Junyong was also referencing the much more positive Daoist story of the Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains. This story was used by Mao Zedong in a famous speech at Yan'an in 1945: 'Today, two big mountains lie like a dead weight on the Chinese people. One is imperialism, the other is feudalism. The Chinese Communist Party has long made up its mind to dig them up. We must persevere and work unceasingly, and we, too, will touch God's heart. Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people. If they stand up and dig together with us, why can't these two mountains be cleared away?' This story was one learned by every schoolchild during the Cultural Revolution.
Accession number
2009.055