Date: August 1967, reprinted in 1980s
Size: 30 x 20 inches
Artist: People's Fine Arts Publishing House
Propaganda posters of Mao Zedong can be traced back to the 1940s, but the god-like images of him produced in the 1960s are unparalleled. According to chineseposters.net "the Army became responsible for art. This art should unite and educate the people, inspire the struggle of revolutionary people and eliminate the bourgeoisie. [...] Proletarian ideology, communist morale and spirit, revolutionary heroism were the messages of a new type of hyper-realism that took precedence over style and technique and that differed in all aspects from art creation until then. In the PLA paintings of the time, the color red featured heavily; it symbolized everything revolutionary, everything good and moral; the color black, on the other hand, signified precisely the opposite. Color symbolism continued to be important in the following years, not only in visual propaganda, but in printed propaganda as well."
This poster's message along the left margin translates to: "Do not fight to fight" while the white characters against the red background read: "Hold high the great red flag of Mao Zedong's thought and completely destroy the bourgeois government." Professionally linen backed, this poster is a 1980s reprint of the August 1967 first-edition propaganda poster.