Andy Warhol Mao portraits banned in China

Famous images of China's former leader excluded from Warhol exhibition in Beijing and Shanghai.

Portraits of Mao Zadong on display during the art exhibition Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal in Hong Kong.  Photo: Hong Kong Museum of Art

 20 Dec 2012
 

Andy Warhol's legendary portraits of former Chinese dictator Mao Zedong will be excluded in a major show of his work in China, the organisers said on Wednesday.

The exhibition marks the 25th anniversary of the American artist's death and is currently touring Asia. It features more than 300 of Warhol's works including 10 acrylic and silkscreen portraits of the former Chinese leader.

But the US-based Andy Warhol Museum which is organising the tour said the Mao images will be dropped from the Beijing and Shanghai legs next year.

"Although we had hoped to include our Mao paintings in the exhibition to show Warhol's keen interest in Chinese culture, we understand that certain imagery is still not able to be shown in China," it said in a statement, which did not indicate whether they had been censored by Chinese authorities.

The Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal exhibition is one of the biggest ever shows of work by Warhol, who died in 1987. The artist was said to have been inspired to create the series of Mao paintings by the historic visit of then US president Richard Nixon to China in 1972.