In M+’s collection record, the English title is given as “I Graze Horse for My Motherland,” a literal rendering whose slightly stiff phrasing reflects the original Chinese slogan-like cadence. Painted in 1973, during the Cultural Revolution in China, this work turns horse-tending into a heroic national image. Chinese artist Guang Tingbo (廣廷渤) presents women as capable workers and defenders by blending pastoral labor, military readiness, and patriotic duty into one seamless scene. Three idealized, almost joyful young Asian women ride and manage a small group of horses across an open grassland under a bright sky. At left, one woman in a vivid red coat sits on a white horse. Beside her, a rider in dark green military uniform raises a hand to her brow as if eagerly scanning the distance. At right, a third woman, also dressed in olive military garb, turns her horse forward with a rifle slung across her back. Brown, black, and white horses move diagonally through the foreground and middle distance, creating a sense of speed and coordinated motion. The ground is lush with green grass dotted with flowers plus water, low buildings, and pale blue hills in the distance. Mao-era art often promoted women as full participants in socialist construction, but always within a collective political script. Here, confidence, beauty, and strength are all directed toward service of the nation. The galloping horses symbolize vigor, discipline, and forward momentum while the vast landscape suggests abundance and ideological clarity rather than hardship. The woman in red provides warmth and visual optimism, while the military gear reminds us that even scenes of rural life were shaped by revolutionary expectations. Guang, born in 1938 in Liaoning and associated with the generation trained in post-1949 socialist realism, paints freedom defined by collective purpose. The painting’s power lies in a tension between radiant openness and carefully managed political meaning.

“我為祖國放駿馬” (I Herd Fine Horses for the Motherland) by 廣廷渤 / Guang Tingbo (Chinese) - Oil on canvas / 1973 - M+ Museum (Hong Kong) #WomenInArt #GuangTingbo #廣廷渤 #MPlusMuseum #M+Museum #artText #art #arte #ChineseArt #ChineseArtist #PoliticalArt #HorseArt #AsianArt #BlueskyArt #PropogandaArt #1970sArt

In the late 1990s, Chinese artist Qi Zhilong (祁志龍) was emerging as a key voice in China’s Political Pop art scene, translating propaganda-era iconography into glossy, billboard-scale portraits. His “Chinese Woman/Chinese Girl” series (中國姑娘系列) became instantly recognizable, helping define how 1990s Chinese painting negotiated mass media, memory, and desire. M+ Museum describes the woman as an anonymous “fashion model or actress” in the “new society,” and that anonymity matters. She is less like an individual than a constructed ideal, suspended between collectivist memory and market-era allure. It’s a heroic-scale, head-and-shoulders portrait of a young Chinese woman set against a flat, vivid pink-red background. She faces forward, almost meeting us with a steady, unsmiling gaze. Her skin is light-to-medium in tone under soft, even shading that smooths the planes of her cheeks and forehead. She wears a military-style khaki cap with a short brim pulled low, and her black hair is parted into two long braids that fall straight down on either side of her chest. Each braid is fastened near the end with a small colored tie. Her clothing is a khaki, uniform-like jacket with a structured collar and lapels. At the neckline, a small wedge of bright, pale green fabric shows beneath. Her makeup is noticeably exaggerated with defined brows, cool-toned eyelids, and mauve-purple lipstick to create a deliberate tension between “uniform” styling and glamour. The cap and khaki jacket evoke Mao-era visual codes, but the cosmetic polish and candy-colored backdrop gently short-circuit any single reading as neither pure homage nor simple parody. In that friction, the work becomes a portrait of a moment representing 1990s China negotiating communism, consumerism, and popular culture all at once.

“中國女孩 (Chinese Woman)” by 祁志龍 / Qi Zhilong (Chinese) - Oil on canvas / 1998 - M+ Museum (Hong Kong, China) #WomenInArt #QiZhilong #祁志龍 #Zhilong #MPlus #MPlusMuseum #MPlus博物館 #M+博物館 #PoliticalPop #artText #art #arte #BlueskyArt #chineseArt #propoganda #PropogandaArt #ChineseArtist #PortraitofaWoman

Peter Yung’s near lost crime drama makes a welcome return: THE SYSTEM ★★★★½ | Part of the M+ Restored programme from the #mplusmuseum

www.easternkicks.com/reviews/the-...

making sure you know where #mplusmuseum is

📍central, hong kong