Dingyi, Kang Sheng, Enlai, Shaoqi, Xiaoping, Peng Zhen〔2〕 Comrades:
This matter should be changed.
Painting nude Models〔3〕 of men, women, old, and young is a necessary basic skill for painting and sculpture; it will not do to not have it. Feudal thinking, to prohibit it, is inappropriate.
Even if some bad things appear, it does not matter.
For the sake of the artistic discipline, do not shrink from small sacrifices.
Please consider and decide.
Mao Zedong
July 18, 1965
Printed according to the "Selected Letters of Mao Zedong," published by People's Publishing House in 1983.
Notes
〔1〕 This is a comment written by Mao Zedong on a letter to Jiang Qing dated May 12, 1965, from Central Academy of Fine Arts instructors Wen Lipeng, Wang Shikuo, and Li Huaji, regarding the issue of using models in art academies. The letter said that since the abolition of the model system, many difficulties had already been encountered in teaching activities. Life drawing from models is an important method for basic skills training in fine arts and can be inherited with a critical approach.
〔2〕 Dingyi, namely Lu Dingyi (1906–1996), a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu. At the time, he was a Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, Director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee, Head of the Central Cultural and Educational Group, and a Vice Premier of the State Council. Kang Sheng, at the time, was a Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Deputy Head of the Central Cultural and Educational Group. Enlai, namely Zhou Enlai. Shaoqi, namely Liu Shaoqi. Xiaoping, namely Deng Xiaoping, at the time, was the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and a Vice Premier of the State Council. Peng Zhen, at the time, was a Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee.
〔3〕 Model, an English word, translated into Chinese as "模特儿" (mótèr).