Chinese artist Gao Zhen has been sentenced by the People’s Court of Sanhe City, Hebei Province, to a maximum of three years imprisonment for charges of “infringing upon the reputation and honour of heroes and martyrs”.
Gao was charged over three satirical sculptures featuring Mao Zedong exhibited in 2009. The works depict a number of Mao figures as a firing squad around a Christ figure, Mao kneeling, and Mao as a voluptuous woman with a long nose. A total of 118 works were confiscated from his studio in 2024.
The Law on Protection of Heroes and Martyrs was promulgated in 2018, more than ten years after Gao created the works in question.
The artist has already been held for two years, which will be included in his jail time if his pending appeal fails. The sentencing follows a one-day trial in March, according to a statement posted by Gao’s family.
Gao Zhen along with his younger brother Gao Qiang banded together as the Gao Brothers in 1985 and became well-known figures in Beijing’s contemporary art scene in its heady growth years of the early 2000s. At that time, Chinese art was less market-facing, censorship was less clear and their sort of political work more common.
Gao, who turned 70 this May, had according to his family suffered from chronic lumbar problems and arthritis prior to his arrest, and recently appears to have suffered from arteriosclerosis or a stroke. Gao and his wife, Zhao Yaliang, who are both US legal residents, and their nine-year-old son, a US citizen, have been unable to leave China since Gao’s arrest.
In 2024, 181 Chinese cultural figures signed a petition calling for Gao’s release. His detention has been decried by the UN and a number of human rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Foundation. Gao’s predicament is being closely watched as a test case for the Law on Protection of Heroes and Martyrs and China’s artistic censorship levels more generally.
