Painted in 1980 by Luo Zhongli (b. 1948), then a 22-year-old student at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, 'Father' (父亲) fills a two-metre canvas with the creased, sunburned face of an anonymous elderly peasant, rendered in meticulous photo-realism. Breaking decisively with the heroic-leader iconography of Cultural Revolution socialist realism, the picture monumentalised the ordinary farmer and became the founding image of the 1980s Chinese New Painting movement. It is a signature permanent work of the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) in Beijing.

Exhibition Venue

National Art Museum of China

Jingshan Subdistrict, China