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Email PagePanta Rei
November 10, 2007- February 28, 2008
Caceres + Miranda
Dorfman Projects
529 W 20th St Caceres + Miranda Long Steps |
Gigantic propaganda images of smiling Chinese workers from the Cultural Revolution, rendered in stark black and white, as if printed, against brilliant crimson backgrounds are the subjects of a new body of paintings entitled “Panta Rei” (everything changes) by Spanish pop artists Manolo Caceres and Jose Miranda.
Taken directly from posters from communist China from the 1960s, Caceres + Miranda have appropriated the powerful media images of a youthful, revolutionary regime created by the Maoist government to convince millions of Chinese peasants to embrace Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution. “We wish to present the images without irony as they were meant to be viewed,” Manolo Caceres explains, adding that the figures are superimposed on backgrounds of theater curtains to remind viewers of the “staged reality” the propaganda images are creating. In a painting entitled “Long Step,” 2007, the heads of the leaders are cut off – “We are only interested in the optimism and idealism of the people – the rural workers and the soldiers, not the political subterfuge of the leadership,” says Caceres. The two artists differ from Andy Warhol, who chose only to reproduce images of Chairman Mao.
The two painters have inserted their own post-modern pop agendas subtly into the paintings. In painting the crimson drapery, Jose Miranda appropriated three painters, Zurburan, Velazques and Titian. In another painting entitled “Gift” he copied a factory landscape from American Precionist painter Charles Sheeler, who glorified the industrial revolution of the 1920’s. Both artists believe they have as much right to use this imagery as contemporary Chinese artists who are playing with these visual tropes. Caceres adds “Although Chinese propaganda images do not belong in our culture, a fabricated media reality is a very Warholian conceit that is part of modern life.”
This is the first American show of work by Caceres + Miranda. In 2005 they exhibited other Chinese propaganda paintings at La Casa Asia, a kunst hall in Barcelona dedicated to fostering relations between Spain and Asia. “The Chinese government was fascinated by our paintings,” said Miranda. “A diplomatic kept a constant eye on us during the show.”
The two artists have been working together since 1999.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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