(Drivebycuriosity) - Mao Zedong may be dead, but the late dictator is still alive in kicking in the art scene. At last week´s huge auctions for contemporary art in New York a portrait of the chairman got one of the highest prices: Andy Warhol´s "Mao" (1972, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas) was sold for $ 47,514,000 at Sotheby`s.
It seems that Warhol was quite obsessed with the "chairmen". At the Art Institute in Chicago I saw
Warhol`s "Mao" from 1973 (Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas), which I posted below, followed by another Warhol: "Mao", also from1973, seen in Berlin at "Hamburger Bahnhof", a museum for contemporary art.
Warhol`s factory produced even more "Maos". I saw the collection, which you can see below, at Sotheby`s New York November 2014, and spotted the 2nd collection below, called "Mao (F&S II.90-99)" Prints and Multiples, 23&24 ), last week, also a Sotheby`s New York.
Other artists portraid Mao too. Below you can see "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom"by the German artist Anselm Kiefer, who quoted one of the chairman´s famous slogans (2000, paint, sand and ash on photographic papers). This painting was part of last week`s auction at Phillips in New York (the estimated price range was $200,000-300,000).
I spotted the sculpture below @ the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, which was part of a temporary exhibition of contemporary Chinese art. The work is called
"History Observed: Joseph Beuys & Mao Zedong, by Li Zhanyang (2007) and shows the chairman together with the late German artist Joeseph Beuys.
A google research showed more Mao portraits by ambitous artists. For instance Yu Youhan`s transgender chairman "Untitled (Mao Marilyn)" and "Every day in China, we put the state on trial' by Ai Weiwei.
Mao Zedong is Dead - Long Live Chairman Mao
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