The artist Yue Minjun also uses his art to make criticisms against the government, but criticizes the Cultural Revolution and the events at Tiananmen Square instead of the contemporary Chinese government. Yue is a self-taught painter, who practiced painting while simultaneously working in the deep-sea drilling industry. Yue painted himself and his coworkers at first, and later moved to live with other artists to develop his style. His famous oil paintings are centered around an icon he created, called the “laughing man”. The laughing man is essentially an exaggerated depiction of Yue himself laughing somewhat uncomfortably and sometimes contorted in awkward positions. The cynical, almost wincing laughter is Yue’s personal response to the…show more content… This wall evokes the Forbidden City, or Tiananmen Square. The men have their heads thrown back comically in laughter, and are standing awkwardly, dressed in nothing but underwear. Some appear to be attempting cover up their underwear, while others have their hands behind their backs. There are also four men on the right hand side of the composition. They are all wearing white shirts and black pants. On the shirt there appears to be an abstract impression of a musician, with musical notes on either side. Three of them have their backs to the viewer, while the fourth is facing outwards, and also bears a comical expression. He seems to be holding an invisible gun, but his posture and expression make it appear as though it could be a guitar instead. The other men at the right also seem to be holding invisible guns, and pointing them at the half-naked men on the left. The background is filled with flat color, and the only part of the painting that is rendered in detail are the eight laughing men. The reference to Tiananmen — a symbol of communist oppression in China — suggests that this work is cynical towards communist
