Starting in 1972, Andy Warhol was inspired to create a series of paintings, drawings, prints and wallpaper of the Chinese communist leader, Mao Zedong, following U.S. President Richard Nixon's historic visit to the People's Republic of China. The meeting between Nixon and Mao ended years of diplomatic isolation between the two nations and resulted in a mass media spectacle that plastered Mao’s face across television and print outlets around the world. The event also amplified the ubiquity of the political figure whose image was already widely circulated throughout China. Bruno Bischofberger, Warhol's long-time gallerist, encouraged Warhol to paint a portrait of the most important figure in the 20th century. While Bischofberger nominated Albert Einstein as the most appropriate subject, Warhol responded “That’s a good idea. But I was just reading in Life magazine that the most famous person in the world today is Chairman Mao. Shouldn’t it be the most famous person, Bruno?” In line with his ongoing obsession with fame and popular culture, Warhol was fascinated by Mao's omnipresence and chose to base his portrayal on the Communist leader's officially sanctioned portrait, which appeared on the frontispiece of the widely circulated publication, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (1964, first published in English in 1967), known in the West as the "Little Red Book". Warhol’s portraits of Mao are amongst his most painterly works. In Mao (1973), Warhol renders his subject in a blue-purple-magenta color palette with gestural brushstrokes surrounding Mao’s tan face. In other versions, Mao appears to be wearing makeup with a darkly colored beauty mark reminiscent of Warhol’s glamorized 1970s portraits of Marilyn Monroe. Warhol experimented with a diversity of colors throughout the series, creating portraits that drastically depart from the photographic image on which they are based. In this series, Warhol draws parallels between communist propaganda and American capitalist consumerism, and the role that celebrity culture plays in both.