Duchamp+Retrospective+Exhibition+in+China--Shi+Xinning

**Identification** Title: Duchamp Retrospective Exhibition Artist: Shi Xinning Date: 2000-2001 Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: 100 × 100 cm Collection: Courtesy of Sigg Collection, Switzerland

Shi Xinning, a contemporary Chinese artist born in 1969 in the Liaoning Province, China, painted this Mao pop art piece in 2000-2001. Shi is the son of parents in the [|People's Liberation Army] of China. He graduated from the LuXun Academy of Fine Arts in 1990 and currently works as a professional artist. Shi often compares his work with that of a film director. This painting falls in a series of paintings which taken from iconic press photos and translate them to an oil medium. The artists then substitutes objects or people--in this case Mao Tse-tung--that were not originally found in the images. Blurring the lines between history, culture, and perceived history, Xinning has been said to "work with a staging of completely incompatable props and scenery", often pairing Mao with Hollywood stars, artists or political figures (88 mocca). In this painting, the viewer is confronted with the juxtaposition of Mao, a revolutionary political and cultural leader in China, and //The Fountain//, a revolutionary ready-made art piece from Dada artist Marcel Duchamp (alias R. Mutt). This event never took place, but its juxtaposition echoes Shi's exploration of the dynamics between Western Eurocentric and Chinese isolationists world views from past decades.
 * Introduction**

//Duchamp Retrospective Exhibition// is a black and white oil painting on canvas that depicts Mao Tse-tung and several other onlookers examining Marcel Duchamp's readymade sculpture, //The Fountain//. Shi employs flat brushwork and a washed out, muted palate to make the painting seem like a utopian version of newspaper photos that might have been if this event took place. The painting is based on a photo of Mao visiting a trade fair. Mao and the party officials surrounding him are dressed in the typical communist party costume. The artist substitutes a mass-produced object that Mao would have inspected at the trade fair with //The Fountain//, Duchamp's revolutionary urinal "sculpture" from 1917. Mao looks on, fascinated, at one of the most important icons in Western art, an icon that undermines the goals and objectives of Mao's communist propaganda (Arndt and Zurich, 2007). Below are images of Duchamp's //The Fountain// and a standard portrait of Mao. It is unclear who the men that accompany Mao are, but they are depicted as often his cohorts were in Maoist military garb following their leader.
 * Descriptive Analysis**

The contrast between the light areas in the foreground (namely the urinal) and the increasingly darker clothing colors of the party officials highlights the interesting juxtaposition of revolutionary icons: Mao and //The Fountain//. The gaze of the viewers also brings attention to the sculpture and invites the viewer into this inspection. In the hierarchy of individuals, Mao takes the focus. He is dressed in a lighter colored outfit and is closer to the viewer than the others, paralleling his placement in communist propaganda posters.

//Duchamp Retrospective Exhibition// is one of the first pieces Shi Xinning painted with Mao as the protagonist. The scene in the painting operates with a great sense of irony. The irony stems from the knowledge that under Mao's rule, only art of a propagandistic nature was permitted and supported. Artwork like Duchamp's readymade urinal would have been banned from exhibition. This limitation of art related to Mao's quest to protect the communist China from outside influences. This limitation is very interesting, though, when viewing the readymade nature of Duchamp's work. If the piece were not signed and declared art by its artists, Mao could really be at the trade fair evaluating a urinal for its utilitarian use in China. However, he is posed looking at a piece of art that contradicts his own insistence that art should to serve the greater good of society (Arndt and Zurich, 2007). Under Mao there would have been no such exhibition, since his philosophies regarding the purpose of art were so staunchly opposite to the Dadaist movement that Marcel Duchamp was a participant in. The choice of the Fountain painting of a urinal seems justified and appropriate in serving symbolically as a cathartic form of vendication for all of those lives that were flushed away by Mao during his time of rule.
 * Formal/Contextual Analysis**

Duchamp's influence on the art world in China was touch and go. By Chinese artists, his work expanded the terrain of art and contributed to their desires to shape the future of their country. Duchamp's readymade elevated the spectator of the piece to the art producer in the sense that by viewing a piece, it legitimized art. This revolutionized the accepted notion of art, especially in the extreme censorship in China. However, Duchamp's work was not accepted readily in by the rest of China. Duchamp once said "the creative act is solely performed by those who view or read the work of art, and it is through their approval or rejection that the work will or will not endure” (Marcel Duchamp, 1956, quoted in Arndt and Zurich, 2007). This statement particularly rings true in communist China.

In Shi Xinning's "Chinafication" of history, Shi explores the dynamics of western Eurocentrism and Chinese isolationist politices. His insertion of Mao into the fabric of western history seems plausible from a Eurocentric perspective where differing viewpoints are welcome; this however contradicts China's isolation at the time of Mao's rule. This irony brings humor to the work, especially with Mao staring at a urinal. It also brings up the propostion of how differently China might have turned out if ideology didn't get in the way of diplomatic conversation and cultural exploration.

Despite its pieced-together nature, Shi Xinning wants his paintings to be read as visual narratives, not collages. He tells absurd stories in his Mao series by placing Mao in situations he would never be found. This arrangement speaks to Mao's totalitarian (yet still communist) rule. He prevented the Chinese from sharing in development occurring outside country lines. This limited exposure to artistic and cultural developments beyond the Cultural Revolution propaganda. The artist has mentioned that he is not interested in Mao as a person, but Mao as an icon. Mao isn't shown in the real context of the 60s and 70s, in the sense that none of the situations the artists portrayed actually occurred. Mao is instead presented as a visual memory. The artist seeks to scrutinize the pride and reverence still given to Mao today, despite the miserable years during the Cultural Revolution. Mao's hostility extended especially toward intellectuals and the arts. Shi Xinning, being the son of an officer and a civil servant of the People's Liberation Army, experienced the isolation of military life in support of Mao's visions for China. By placing Mao in the company of various cultural and political heroes, the artist is retrospectively placing Mao in situations that promote cultural and political diversity, instead of limitings access to it (Arndt and Zurich, 2008).

Another example of Shi Xinning's work is //Mao and McCarthy// (seen below). Xinning's feigned documentation makes hilarious political commentary. It is painted on a grand-scale with all eyes on the accused communists. However, no one seems to recognize the "real" communists in the room, namely Mao and his party associates on the right side on the painting. The newsprint look with a high contrast palette and inky brushwork resemble the tones and texture of cold war journalism and play at the what it really means to be a communist ("Shi Xinning", //The Saatchi Gallery//).



Showing the modern tone of his style, Shi uses this trick of the eye to surprise and trigger unconventional thought that would otherwise not been initiated. In today's technological world of Photoshop and image rendering via computers, it is even more applicable and can be compared to many present day political satirical art. In todays Western contemporary art world, many artists and designers implament the use of this same method to provoke thought and get across a political or social message.

**References**

Printed Sources

Editorial: Duchamp, Dewey, and a Fountain of Knowledge by Graeme Sullivan Studies in Art Education, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Summer, 2002), pp. 291-292 Published by: [|National Art Education Association]

The Artwork Caught by the Tail by George Baker //October//, Vol. 97, (Summer, 2001), pp. 51-90 Published by: [|The MIT Press]

//Online Sources//

China Town Connection [] //The Museum of Contemporary Chinese Arts on the Web.// []. //Chinesische Gegenwartskunst// [] //Chinesische Gegenwartskunst// [] //The Saatchi Gallery// [] New Chinese Art [] Red Mansion []