This exhibition catalogue is available through Oak Knoll Books or Order Catalogue through the Fisher Library
The year 2016 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a social and political movement launched in May of 1966 by Mao Zedong (1893-1976), then Chairman of the Communist Party of China, which lasted until Mao’s death in 1976. The Cultural Revolution sought to implement “true” Communist thought and to make dominant Maoist ideology. Taking this milestone as an occasion on which better to understand the Cultural Revolution, the Fisher Library hosted an exhibition on the relation of this movement to visual art and literacy. Specifically, the exhibition explored the importance of reading during this period, examining how propaganda posters and other artifacts of the Cultural Revolution represented the writings of Chairman Mao, how these posters and artifacts popularized a culture of Mao’s books, and how, in turn, text-heavy propaganda posters, artifacts representing books, and the large-scale printing of books of Mao Zedong Thought (Mao Zedong sixiang) created a context for increased literacy.
This exhibition was curated by Jennifer Purtle, Associate Professor of Chinese and East Asian Art Department of Art, Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto