06.

Zhao Yannian (1924-2014)

Portrait of Lu Xun

1961

Woodblock print

30 x 42 cm

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Lu Xun wears a pensive expression in this powerfully cut image. The artist’s pencilled inscription reads, “Fierce-browed, coolly denying the thousand pointing fingers, head bowed like an ox serving the people". These two lines are a variation on Lu Xun’s 1932 poem, Self-Mockery, here given a revolutionary political interpretation, as quoted out of context by Mao Zedong at the 1942 Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art.

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Muban Educational Trust registration number zhayn004