"That's a stinky idea of the bourgeoisie, We were told not to think of ourselves as artists." Liu Yang said. Liu's version of the Mao portrait was displayed in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1979. (Photo: LAT) ......
Mao, the founder of the People's Republic of China, was born in1893 and died in 1976.
The portrait, 91 centimeters high and 68.5 centimeters wide, was painted in the 1950s by portraitist Zhang Zhenshi. Posters of the work were made and circulated throughout the country...
During the 1911 Revolution, Mao enlisted as a soldier in a local regiment in Hunan, which fought on the side of the revolutionaries. Once the Qing Dynasty had been effectively toppled, Mao left the army and returned to school.
After graduating from the First Provincial Normal School of Hunan in 1918, Mao traveled with Professor Yang Changji, his high school teacher and future father-in-law, to Beijing during the May Fourth Movement in 1919.
Mao Zedong (1893-1976) is one of the founders of the Communist Party of China and the core figure of New China's first generation leadership.
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung: Volume I