Among the most renowned Chinese artists who emerged as China opened up, the Gao brothers made their mark with their resolutely political work. A sign of an ever-shrinking space of freedom in today’s China, one of them, Gao Zhen, has been in detention since August 26, information confirmed by Gao Qiang, his younger brother, who recently moved to the United States.
The artist’s wife was informed by the public security bureau of Sanhe, a township east of Beijing, the day after the arrest. He is charged under a 2018 law against “attacks on the reputation and honour of heroes and martyrs”. His lawyer was able to see him on Friday, August 30. His studio was raided by police officers, who took photos of some of the works, including sculptures representing Mao Zedong. They could feed into a prosecution case. Gao Zhen was partially residing in the United States and was due to return there shortly.
Their family history having been struck by the tragedy of Maoism, the two brothers have addressed this theme in much of their joint work, produced from the mid-1980s onwards. Originally from Jinan, the capital of the coastal province of Shandong, they were only six and 12 years old when, one day in 1968, in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, their father was dragged into detention, accused of being a class enemy. Twenty-five days later, his wife and six children were informed of his « suicide »which they had always doubted. The family later went to Beijing to protest to the central government against this injustice. They finally received only a pittance in compensation.
Mao’s Obsession
The two brothers would go on to study fine arts. The bloody repression of the Tiananmen movement in the spring of 1989, of which they would paint a “memorial” (If Time Reversed, Memory 1989)only strengthens their denunciation of the crimes of the regime. They emerge among a generation of committed artists who try to push the limits of censorship, alongside the famous Ai Weiwei, and become pillars of Espace 798, disused military factories in the northeast of Beijing that are transformed into artists’ studios at the turn of the 2000s, while contemporary Chinese art now attracts international collectors. One of the Gao brothers’ sculptures represents police officers forcibly taking away a prostitute. Another work depicts numerous naked individuals, locked in stacked wooden boxes representing the straitjacket of Chinese society.
You have 38.87% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
