Final answer:
The statement about Mao Zedong's era promoting 'art for art's sake' is false. Art during this time was a means of state propaganda, heavily emphasizing socialist realism in line with communist ideology.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that during the era of Mao Zedong, the government encouraged "art for art's sake" rather than socialist realism is false. Under Mao's leadership, China experienced severe censorship and control over cultural production. The regime emphasized socialist realism and regulated the portrayal and dissemination of artwork, especially those depicting Mao himself.
Portraits of Mao Zedong were subject to strict guidelines, and the government even decreed how these portraits were to be handled and displayed. Amateur and workers' artists societies were encouraged to create art that aligned with the principles of socialism and depicted the image of the leader in a socialist realist style, as part of the effort to build a socialist society and eradicate capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese culture.
Art in the Mao era was not a reflection of individual expression or 'art for art's sake', but rather a tool of the state to propagate the socialist message and to aid in the 'engineering' of a new type of society. This approach to art and propaganda was similar across communist states, such as the Soviet Union under Stalin, where cultural production was also tightly controlled and used as a means of reinforcing the party's ideology.