[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Chrome_bust_of_Russian_Communist_leader_Vladimir_Lenin_in_West_Hollywood_California_LCCN2013631605-e1775246823888.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Human Rights Foundation has submitted a complaint to a United Nations body that reviews detention cases on behalf of Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen, seeking a finding that his prolonged detention is arbitrary under international law.<\/p>\n
\n\tGao, 69, was arrested in China in 2024 on \u201csuspicion of slandering China\u2019s heroes and martyrs,\u201d a charge tied to his longstanding sculptural practice repurposing art historical icons to challenge official narratives and mythmaking. That year, more than 100 artworks were seized during a police raid on his studio in Sanhe City, China, including ones such as Miss Mao, Mao\u2019s Guilt <\/em>and The Execution of Christ<\/em>, which critique the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s authoritarianism and censorship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAs the Human Rights Foundation noted in its April petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the three works were all created at least nine years before China\u2019s 2021 law prohibiting \u201cslandering\u201d its \u201cheroes\u201d and \u201cmartyrs\u201d was enacted.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cApplying it retroactively to criminalize Zhen\u2019s artwork shows the lengths to which the CCP is willing to go to silence dissent,\u201d the organization said in a statement. \u201cGao Zhen\u2019s trial, delayed three times, took place in a single day on March 30, 2026, suggesting his guilt had been predetermined. He is still awaiting a verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Human Rights Foundation\u2019s petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention outlines a series of alleged human rights violations in Gao\u2019s case, including prolonged solitary confinement, the \u201cretroactive application of a vague and overly broad law,\u201d and denial of medical care.<\/p>\n \n\tIn October 2025, Human Rights Watch called on the Chinese government to drop the \u201cbaseless charges\u201d against Gao\u2014a permanent US resident\u2014adding that he is in \u201cpoor health\u201d and fainted the previous month. According to Gao\u2019s brother and artistic collaborator, Gao Qiang, Chinese authorities seized sculptures, paintings, and photographs during the raid, including a sculptural series depicting Mao variably as a woman with breasts and kneeling on the ground, as well as a depiction of a Chinese firing squad aiming at Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Human Rights Foundation accused Chinese authorities of denying medical care to the jailed artist, who has reportedly been deemed at risk for a stroke and suffers from chronic back pain, and of confining him at least once to \u201ca crowded 40\u2011square\u2011meter cell with 14 other detainees.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFollowing his arrest, 181 artists, writers, activists, and intellectuals from China signed a petition urging his release. In the letter, they drew parallels between the current government under President Xi and Mao\u2019s. During the Cultural Revolution, the Gao Brothers\u2019 father was accused of being a \u201ccounter-revolutionary\u201d and died in detention.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe Gao Brothers\u2019 father tragically lost his life during that time, and their family has yet to receive any explanation or justice,\u201d reads the petition. \u201cToday, the Sanhe Public Security Bureau has labeled Gao Zhen\u2019s artistic creations as evidence of a crime, repeating the persecutions of the Cultural Revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/gao-zhen-human-rights-foundation-petition-1234779866\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Chrome_bust_of_Russian_Communist_leader_Vladimir_Lenin_in_West_Hollywood_California_LCCN2013631605-e1775246823888.jpg?w=1024″] The Human Rights Foundation has submitted a complaint to a United Nations body that reviews detention cases on behalf of Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen, seeking a finding that his prolonged detention is arbitrary under international law. Gao, 69, was arrested in China in 2024 on \u201csuspicion of slandering China\u2019s heroes and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1865051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1865051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1865051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1865051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1865051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}