Patriarch is a symbolic representation of death, as it involves violence, loneliness and autocracy. Humanity lives under its formidable shadow; it is the shadow of subsistence. The root of Patriarch could be found within us internally, as it is a primitive dark power that lies hidden in our existence. Therefore, Patriarch does not speak of a specific individual. It is merely one of the many representational states of being for humanity.

Mao Xuhui, Art Trends, 1993 (Extract)

The Patriarch Series can be separated into three stages of development, during which Mao Xuhui reflected constantly on the underlying power of Patriarch from both history and reality, and explored this symbol profusely in the visual field. From a half-body self-portrait, portrait of family busts, to self-portrait in a chair, Mao gradually builds up to creating the Patriarch Series in the 1980s in this self-transformational process. In the development of the Patriarch Series, the robust body of a Patriarch in the chair slowly reduces to a withered figure, and diminishes down to a triangular symbol at last. Through reduction and withdrawal, Patriarch and Power gradually transform a very specific, representational image back to its form, and thus strip away its significance in reality. The creation of the painting is tantamount to life itself. Life can only prove its existence through death, which is a destiny that even a Patriarch with supreme power cannot escape from.

(Wang Wenjuan, Farewell to Power, Farewell to Mainstream: The Art of Mao Xuhui, edited by Gao Minglu, Culture and Art Publishing House, 2010 [Extract])