The works from Wang Guangyi's "Great Criticism" series have become some of the most evocative and instantly recognized standard-bearers of the Chinese Contemporary Art Movement. Melding the art forms of the old communist world pre-1975, with the Pop-art movement of 1960s New York, Wang's works have an integral and central place in the foundation of contemporary Chinese art. From its launch in the early 1990's the "Great Criticism" series found instant and immediate success worldwide, and Wang's works now hang in all the great collections of contemporary Chinese art.

The present work "Great Criticism – Pierre Cardin" is an iconic representative of the series. Painted in the flat style of Pop-art, the work contains all the elements of Wang's Political-Pop art, a movement he founded for contemporary Chinese art. In the centre is a massive, stalwart figure of a classic proletarian worker taken straight from the images of Cultural Revolution propaganda posters. The smiling figure is strong and powerful, with energy flowing through every facet of his body. He seems to be inviting us to understand something or to partake in something.

Immediately, we are struck by the fact that the worker is not wielding tools of his trade. Instead of mallets or hammers, he is holding the pen of a scribe in one hand and a not so little red book in the other. The image is intensified through its framing in a crimson red background, and the use of matt yellows and greens which lend it an archaic quality. The work is stamped all over with repetitive numbers reminiscent of a prisoner's jailhouse identity. Across the bottom is emblazoned "Pierre Cardin" an iconic Western brand readily identifiable in the newly opened China of 2002, the year the work was created.

"Great Criticism – Pierre Cardin" magnificently embodies Wang's irony. The apparent absurdity of every image and detail serves to highlight Wang's fundamental ironic view of present day China, the absurdity of revolutionary propaganda being replaced by Western consumerism.