Episode 149
The Founding Ceremony of the Nation
Sun, 2017-Oct-01 00:49 UTC
Length - 2:52
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Sunday, 01 October 2017 is The Founding Ceremony of the Nation.
The Founding Ceremony of the Nation (or The Founding of the Nation, Pinyin: Kāiguó Dàdiǎn, Chinese: 开国大典) is a 1953 oil painting by Chinese artist Dong Xiwen. It depicts Mao Zedong and other Communist officials inaugurating the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949. A prominent example of socialist realism, it is one of the most celebrated works of official Chinese art. The painting was repeatedly revised, and a replica painting made to accommodate further changes, as the leaders it depicted fell from power and later were rehabilitated.
After the Communists took control of China, they sought to memorialize their achievements through artworks. Dong was commissioned to create a visual representation of the October 1 ceremony, which he had attended. He viewed it as essential that the painting show both the people and their leaders. After working for three months, he completed an oil painting in a folk art style, drawing upon Chinese art history for the contemporary subject. The success of the painting was assured when Mao viewed it and liked it, and it was reproduced in large numbers for display in the home.
The 1954 purge of Gao Gang from the government resulted in Dong being ordered to remove him from the painting. Gao's departure was not the last; Dong was forced to remove Liu Shaoqi in 1967. The winds of political fortune continued to shift during the Cultural Revolution, and a reproduction was painted by other artists in 1972 to accommodate another deletion. That replica was modified in 1979 to include the purged individuals, who had been rehabilitated. Both canvases are in the National Museum of China in Beijing.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:49 UTC on Sunday, 01 October 2017.
For the full current version of the article, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Founding_Ceremony_of_the_Nation.
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