Artists Bring Activism Alive

Yue Minjun

“I’m actually trying to make sense of the world. 
There’s nothing cynical or absurd in what I do.” 
-Yue Minjun

Most of us are familiar with the “tankman” that stood up to the Chinese tanks on June 5, 1989, the day after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. As we draw closer to a day to remember this man that has remained seemingly anonymous, I began to reflect on the immense power that the young activists had on China.

In China, June 4^th is referred to as the “June 4^th Incident” implying that the events that day were a chance occurrence. However, the “incident” could more accurately be referred to as the June 4^th Democracy Movement. University students began mourning the death of Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer, by protesting in Tiananmen Square in May.  Students hoped to expose the corrupted government and argued for democratic ideals such as freedom of speech, press, and worker’s control over industry.  At the peak of the protest, it is estimated that a million people were assembled in the Square. It wasn’t long before this protest became a massacre. On June 4^th, Chinese militants used force to break up the protest killing many (because China banned foreign press we may never know how many died) students and innocent bystanders.

Execution, 1995

The Chinese government condemned the protests as a counter-revolutionary riot and continued to prohibit all forms of discussion or remembrance of the events since. And so, the responsibility of remembering, even in the face of imprisonment and threats has fallen upon the artists of China. Yue Minjun, a Beijing artist most commonly known for oil paintings and sculptures depicting himself frozen in time smiling painted Execution in 1995. By 2007, his painting had become the most expensive Chinese contemporary art work ever sold at 5.9 million US dollars.

Soethby’s, a global art business that serves “the most discerning clients” (i.e. wealthy art collectors) stated that Yue’s Execution is “among the most historically important paintings of the Chinese avant-garde ever to appear at auction”. While Yue has stated that the painting should not be viewed as depicting what happened at Tiananmen Square, most critics argue that because of the politically sensitive nature of his work, he has no choice but to deny its strong inevitable connection with the Massacre of 1989. In addition, Yue’s classification as a cynical realist-an artist that describes the living status with a cynicism and mocking ridicule art attitude, using self-opinion to understand political and commercial realms-again places him in the activist’s seat as an artist.

This is not the first time activism has fallen into the hands of artists. As a book-worm, I am more familiar with authors that have woven activism between their lines. Poets like Thoreau, and authors of the Harlem Renaissance, the Bloomsbury Group, and even in present day, Junot Diaz all wrote/write about the injustices they observed around them. However, more foreign to me, are the painters and sculptors that made similar stands. When I began to research Yue Minjun’s role in activism, I found that there were a few other paintings that were eerie in similarities.

El tres de Mayo de 1808

In Francisco Goya’s painting, El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid, Goya depicts Napoleon’s armies during the occupation of 1808 in the Peninsular War. Just as Yue’s painting shows the victims as powerless, terrorized, and peaceful, Goya shows the innocent dead in a heap as the others have no defense to the raised guns of the French. In the late 1800's, Edouard Manet painted a series of paintings titled, The Execution of Emperor Maximilian. Again, there is an unnerving similarity between the paintings of Minjun and Goya. The firing squad, positioned almost identically to Goya and Minjun’s militants aims at the short-lived emperor.

The Execution of Emperor Maximilian

With no claims to be an art critic, I was most struck by similarities between the paintings but also, the courage of the artists behind them. Despite political ridicule and the sensitive subjects they were tackling, these artists forged on because they believed that sharing the image was more important than remaining silent. If nothing else, this seems to be a symbolic truth: as individuals we know far too much to remain silent. I believe we must all find our own mediums whether it be a paint brush, a pen, or profession and break the silence of injustice.