Title: Contradictions : artistic life, the socialist state, and the Chinese painter Li Huasheng /
Authors: Silbergeld, Jerome.; Gong, Jisui.
Publisher: University of Washington Press,
Year: 1993
Subjects: Li, Huasheng,; Painters China Biography.; Socialism and art China.; Art and state China.; Art and state China.
Abstract: "Li Huasheng (b. 1944) represents the first generation of artists raised and trained in the People's Republic of China. His career spans the painting of Maoist propaganda in the 1960s, a decade of secretly studying forbidden traditional styles during the Cultural Revolution, an overnight rise from poverty to prominence during the artistic rejuvenation of Sichuan province under Deng Xiaoping, a hellish descent into political disgrace during the anti-Western campaign of 1983-1984, and a boldly pursued political rehabilitation to become Sichuan's foremost younger artist today. All along, Li has been driven by a fearless flair for drama that is expressed not only in his remarkable paintings of the Sichuan landscape but in a lifelong passion for Sichuan-style theater. Li's career has been allied with that of his foremost mentor, Chen Zizhuang (1913-1976).^