Mao, and Mickey (two works)

A man with his back to the viewer looks into a handheld mirror. His reflection is a portrait of Mao with a blue face,
Side profile of someone's face as they look into a handheld mirror. Their reflection is the face of the cartoon character Mickey Mouse.

Roger Shimomura (b. 1939) 
Lawrence Lithography Workshop, publisher
2016
Lithograph on paper
9/60 (Mao); 26/60 (Mickey)
Fairchild Endowment Fund purchase
2021.28.1

Distinguished artist Roger Shimomura is a veteran of the Korean War and served on the fine art faculty at the University of Kansas, Lawrence for 35 years. Shimomura challenges notions of identity and stereotype in his work, especially from the viewpoint of his Asian heritage. These two lithographs juxtapose figures drawn from traditional Japanese prints with American pop imagery created by Andy Warhol and Walt Disney. In 1972, Warhol created the screenprint portfolio Mao, with ten versions of the Chinese Communist leader in various colors. Shimomura incorporates a Warhol Mao in one lithograph, and an image of Mickey Mouse in the other. His characters from Japanese prints both look into a mirror to see the incongruous reflection of one of these mass-disseminated personas.