His work is considered in China to be in the Political Pop genre. His work re-examines socialist imagery and he states that his goal as an artist is to revive a "socialist spirit". and Gombrich's theory of inherited "schemata".
2000s During the 2000s the relationship between Wang's works and the transcendent increased. In fact the title given to the
Materialist series (2001-2005) is not contradictory. This series of sculptures made from the images of twelve workers, farmers and soldiers that were taken from propaganda images. According to Wang Guangyi these propaganda images bring to light that the main force of the people, the anger expressed by their movements, derives from faith in ideology. With these sculptures the artist attempts to put an image to the general feeling of the people while referencing dialectic materialism - Materialist is a term that has particular import in Chinese history in that it summarizes the socialist ideology. At the same time, the artist also sees another level of meaning within the work. In art, things that possess certain conceptual qualities are called "the object", which in Chinese has the same root as the word "materialist", Wang has also represented the great political (Lenin, Stalin, Mao), spiritual (Christ) and spiritual and political leaders (John XXIII), as well as the philosophers whose thought continues to exert its influence today (Marx and Engels) in series of oil paintings entitled New Religion (2011). The images seem taken from photographic negatives, and though the artist uses a traditional oil painting technique in these works, the ambiguity created by the reference to photography breaks the familiarity that the spectator has with them, thereby opening up interpretations as to their meaning. Through this cycle of works Wang has asked himself about the commonalities between the great utopias, the fascination that they exert on humans, and why all men feel the need to find figures on which to place their faith. The installations that make up the cycle Cold War Aesthetics (2007-2008) contain historical reconstructions of the Cold War period. In these works, Wang deals with the psychological effects of the propaganda that was characteristic of the Chinese political climate of that time. In order to evoke a psychological reaction, the artist makes the spectators feel the emotion, climate and mentality of that era. Wang's 2001 installation
Elementary Education presents a series of 1967-1968 Chinese anti-war posters and graphics addressing safety in the event of a nuclear attack placed next to a construction scaffold, spade, and military boots. Wang intended to depict a work site where "everything is about to begin", leaving the question of what happens next to the viewer's imagination. Wang states that he sought to "show the education that our generation received and how, in the wake of the Cold War, we may continue to look at the current configuration of the world."
Elementary Education first exhibited in Hamburg, Germany. Wang's 2001-2002 sculptures
Materialists depict socialist figures such as
Red Guards in the confidence of youth. The sculptures are made of fiberglass and covered in
millet. Wang describes his use of millet as an important element in the art work because "millet is full of revolutionary significance in China." (for example, millet was a staple for the
Eighth Route Army during its fight against the Japanese invasion of China). Wang compares his use of millet to
Joseph Beuys use of coarse
felt, stating that just as one must understand the European tradition to understand Beuys' use of the fabric, one must understand the Chinese tradition to understand Wang's use of millet. His 2007-2008 installation
Cold War Aesthetics uses objections such as fiberglass sculptures, old posters, concrete blocks, and video to create scenes of Chinese citizens and militia preparing for nuclear, chemical, and biological attacks. ==Reception==