For those who had been through the Cultural Revolution, must have a profound impression on the Propaganda Paintings and the Model Play of Opera of the Great Criticism. The characters in the Propaganda Paintings if not passionate and patriotic soldiers from industry and agriculture, then must be icons of great men. These kinds of distinctive symbols of an era have become collective memories of the people in China. From a present point of view, this kind of image is a symbol of a heroism that is out-of-time and is also a critique that is nil and preposterous. The products and popular culture of western capitalism gradually entering the socialized China, has become a new kind of heroism.

The progressive artist in China, Wang Guangyi had discovered the change of capitalism and the culture invasion, and clearly realized that art actually bears politics and strategies. He created the "Great Criticism" series of work during the 80's, and it dose not have to concern about the artistic within, it is a portrait of an era. The art critic in China, Lu Peng considers that Wang Guangyi's "G reat Criticism"is now an important document of the history, and it is also the keyword that portraits the appearance of cold war.

"Political Pop" is an important genre of the progressive art in China; its influence still exists even now. The earliest political pop in China gathered up in "Guangzhou Oil Painting Biennale" in 1992. However, Wang Guangyi had already painted a typical work of political pop before that. Wang is the frontier of the political pop in China, he painted a portrait of Mao Zedong during the "'89 China Contemporary Art Exhibition" in Beijing Chinese Art Museum, he peculated the famous portrait from the Cultural Revolution period and painted with black colors and red squares, it thus become the earliest work of pop art in China.

In 1993, Wang Guangyi was invited to attend the 45th Biennale of Venice regarding his "Great Criticism" his powerful symbols of the era with trenchant words and images had made him the spotlight in the international art scene. In his article "My Work Since The 1990's" he talked about the creation of the "G reat Criticism" :"In the series 'Great Criticism', I put together the images of the peasant/solider/work from the Cultural Revolution period with advertisement images of commercial products that have infiltrated our everyday lives. In doing so, these two distinct cultural traits from separate historical periods, upon being eradicated of their intrinsic functions through satire and treatment of structure, achieve a kind of nihilistic absurdity."(Wang Guangyi - Faces of Faith, Soobin Art Gallery Pte. Ltd, Singapore, 2001, p. 3)

Senior art critic in China, Li Xianting praised Wang Guangyi as the frontier of the political pop and the representative of China contemporary art during the 80's. In his article "Wang Guangyi And Political Pop" he talked about the "Great Criticism" series in his point of view: "Only look at Wang's "Great Criticism" series to witness the symbolic path of China: The emblems of Cultural Revolution propaganda thrust starkly against popular western brand names. Socialists political vs capitalist commercial. Such is the unique cynicism regarding international political pop styles distinct to Chinese culture express in his work"(ibid, p. 4)

Finished in 2004, the work "Great Criticism - VOLVO" in which Wang Guangyi criticizes the Sweden automobile giant, VOLVO. VOLVO Group was established in 1927, it is the second largest car maker in the world, next to the Mercedes-Benz of Germany. According to reports, VOLVO entered China in 1993, and the sales are still growing. Under the tide of economic globalization, China that pursues communism had already capitalized, the VOLVO brand already has an enormous vogue in the world, and it represents one of the head of the western capital market. In the propaganda images for soldiers from industry and agriculture, propagandistic texts are highly raised with enthusiasm, thus forms a time misplaced kind of curtness. The printed number symbols in the painting represent codes of money. Products are apotheosized; they become objects to yearn for, and the artist himself has made a great criticism on the consumer culture in his painting.