CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION POSTER - Large 13-person library (from Huxian Farmers' painting Exhibition)

A librairy with students with a western world map at the wall. Published by Shanghai renmin chubanshe (上海人民出版社).

A fine Chinese propaganda posters at the time times have clearly changed. It is the Cultural Revolution, and propaganda does its utmost to portray China as an agrarian Utopia, although the images clearly show that progress has arrived in the rural areas, as can be seen from, a.o., the world map on the wall.
The works of amateur artists among workers and peasants were given nation-wide attention and support. These amateurs were promoted as representatives of the innate creative genius of the masses, as living proof that everyone could and should practice art. Among the best known were the peasant painters from Huxian, Shaanxi Province.
Although touted as amateurs, it was later admitted that the peasant painters had received extensive professional help and assistance, often provided by the same professional artists who were no longer allowed to work themselves. The Huxian painters' highly political paintings provided idyllic slices of the good life in the rural areas, and were peopled with happy and enthusiastic peasants engaged in agriculture, political meetings and study sessions.