famous paintings. Dong Xiwen’s Founding Ceremony of China is an extremely famous painting in China. It depicts the event of Mao Zedong and other Communist Party leaders declaring the founding of People’s Republic of China. This painting is the earliest and most representative work of Mao Zedong’s proscribed art style (Revolutionary Realism Ed.). Mao stuck to the principle that art should serve politics and be enjoyed by workers, peasants and soldiers. He called on artists to learn from the folk art of peasants. Dong Xiwen’s Founding Ceremony of China is a model of this type.
Yue : When I started work on the series of “altered” famous paintings, I had thought to replace the characters with acquaintances-but that would have proved too difficult. This led me to Delacroix’s Liberty Leading Her People.

Li : What are these pictures with the multitude of circles over the surface?

Yue : I began work on a few of these works in 1996. I always wanted them to be more forceful but producing so many strokes requires a supreme effort. I had thought to make the paint very thick and used a knife, but this obscured everything in the process. Nothing was clear and the image was transformed into something else. You couldn’t see the image. So I had to find another way so that it would retain its force after being “processed”(meaning the application of the circle strokes) and where the strokes would effect a sense of motion. I think it is similar to the application of a computer software. For example, you can use Photoshop to produce various effects like bas-relief. I think all designers have idea of “process”-that is, every piece of work must be processed, and that inspired me. I think you can also arrive at such an idea by “processing” a sketch. An artist can use a computer to form his own style. Even if you process your images or compositions in Photoshop, your personal style still will present itself. For me, this process aligns my work with media, which all undergo a processed, so what you see is not the original thing. My intention is to achieve better effects but so far I have not had much success. I need to work on it more. Process can be explained this way : When I made a mistake at school I was afforded the opportunity to learn a lesson. Which means the present situation needs some modification.