Sale of revolutionary Chinese art at Bloomsbury Auctions
The first sale to be devoted to revolutionary works of art produced in China under Mao Zedong will be held in London next week. From 1949, when Mao proclaimed the People's Republic, until his death in 1976 – and especially during the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution – China, it can be argued, experienced the heaviest deluge of propaganda art that has ever been witnessed. But, because so much of it was subsequently destroyed, opportunities to collect surviving examples have been few and far between.
This sale, by Bloomsbury Auctions, is therefore a landmark occasion, and includes more than 170 lots, from Little Red Books and political posters, to porcelain figures, cups, plates and teapots, lacquer plaques, snuff bottles, embroideries and badges. Estimates range from £150 to £20,000 for a copy of the earliest known edition of the Little Red Book.
Nearly half the sale consists of porcelain works from the collection of Peter and Susan Wain. Wain, now in his late sixties, was a captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and served in Hong Kong as an education officer between 1968 and 1971, lecturing on current affairs. Here he was a frequent visitor to the local, Chinese-owned arts and crafts store, where Maoist propaganda art was sold in exchange for foreign currency. "You could buy mass produced posters for the equivalent of 10 pence each," he remembers, "and porcelain figures for less than £10. I picked the ones that were of the best quality."
Wain was qualified to do so because he had previously worked for Royal Doulton, the manufacturers of high-quality bone china, in Staffordshire. A 1964 painted plate (estimate, £4,000-£6,000) which shows workers entering an idealised factory is inscribed "World shaking new atmosphere" by Yu Wenxiang, a senior master at Zhushan, the old Imperial ceramics factory. "This is of museum quality," says Wain. "It has five layers of paint."
The sale is packed with historical reference and rarities. A poster showing a worker holding out a copy of The People's Daily (£8,000-£12,000) protests at America's aggression towards Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, stating that it was "an act of aggression towards China". The style is learnt from the Russian socialist realist artists whom Mao had employed to teach following the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship in 1950. Although 15,000 posters were printed, only four are known to survive.
A later porcelain group, containing an African worker and a Vietnamese peasant armed for combat against the imperial aggressor (£3,000-£5,000), is the only known group of its type. It was not until years later that the artist, Shui Gen, confirmed that the work was by him. With the advent of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, such masters were forced to work anonymously and adhere to the strictest guidelines, especially where images of Mao were concerned. A large porcelain vase of 1968 with Mao depicted as the sun (£10,000-£15,000) is a rare example of the use of blue under-glaze at this time. Because cobalt blue could burn through the glaze, there was a risk of imperfection – and the creators of such imperfections were likely to be severely punished.
Many of the best works at that time were only shown in export centres in Hong Kong and Macao, says Wain. But some he has found – unseen for decades and covered in grime – on more recent visits to China after the porcelain factories had closed down.
The works from his collection are estimated to fetch up to £130,000, but could make more. Wain has chosen to sell now, partly to supplement his pension, but also because he senses that Chinese collectors, who 10 years ago would still have felt sensitive to the historical connections with Mao's regime, are now ready to embrace it. "In the last five years, prices have begun to increase," he says, "and the market within China in growing."
This has resulted in a growing industry in fakes. "I have seen them in the markets of Shanghai and Beijing. The fakers may have the original moulds from the factories," warns Wain, "but they can't find the right paints or produce the fine touches." The sale from his collection, therefore, provides a limited opportunity to inspect so many genuine articles before they are dispersed to the winds.
