42.

Gu Yuan (1919-96)

Sufficient Fertilizer for a Bumper Harvest of Grain and Cotton

1959

Woodblock print

28 x 21 cm

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Gu Yuan made this print during the Great Leap Forward (1958-62), China’s misguided agricultural and industrial development plan. Following the cultural policy known as “revolutionary romanticism", many propaganda prints from that time show fantastical imagery, with boat-sized cabbages or flying peaches. By 1959, it was clear the extreme strategy had failed, and cultural policies relaxed slightly. This is a genre scene of peaceful agricultural life, the only specifically political element being more fertilizer than would actually have been available.

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Muban Educational Trust registration number guvyv007