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Deceptive Cadence
1:48 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

Explore Madame Mao's Hollywood Fantasies

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Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see+ Gallery, Beijing, and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
A Chinese and a North Korean embrace in a pledge of everlasting (political) love. From Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
The "model works" engineered by Jiang Qing combine elements of 1930s Hollywood fantasy, Peking opera and classical ballet with heaping doses of political dogma.The Red Detachment of Women, 1973.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
The aesthetics of classical Peking opera, with its stylized performing techniques and facial gestures, was an important element of the "model works" that Jiang Qing and her collaborators created. Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, 1969.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
Another Zhang still from Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of see+ Gallery, Beijing, and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto
Photographer Zhang Yaxin created incredible and indelible images as stills from the array of "model" operas and ballets planned and sanctioned by the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution.A Chinese and North Korean solider embrace in Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
Some of the model works were expanded into a range of theatrical, politically acceptable iterations. First composed as an opera in 1964, The White-Haired Girl was also adapted into an opera-ballet and a film. The White Haired Girl, 1974.
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By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 3:56 pm

During the chaos and oppression of China's Cultural Revolution, one curious new theatrical genre was born — and it was the child of the Communist Party. Jiang Qing (a.ka. Madame Mao), a former stage and screen actress and the notorious wife of Mao Zedong, led the creation of yang ban xi: "model works" that were meant, in words attributed to Chairman Mao, to "serve the interests of the workers, peasants, and soldiers and [conforming] to proletarian ideology."

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Deceptive Cadence
10:54 am
Fri April 26, 2013

The Ultimate Soloist

Credit Pablo Helguera
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By Pablo Helguera

Got an idea for a classical cartoon or a reaction to this one? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Pablo Helguera is a New York-based artist working with sculpture, drawing, photography and performance. His new book is Helguera's Artunes. You can see more of his work atArtworld Salon and on his own site.

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Deceptive Cadence
9:44 am
Tue April 23, 2013

Music We Love Now: Three Must-Hear Piano Albums

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Credit Patrick Walter
Ingolf Wunder pays tribute to 300 years of keyboard music on his new album 300.
Credit Grand Piano
Credit Cedille
Credit DG
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Originally published on Tue April 23, 2013 11:22 am

The young Austrian pianist Ingolf Wunder shines in Mozart, Jorge Federico Osorio reintroduces an intoxicating Mexican concerto and Elisveta Blumina reveals the gentle side of Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov.

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