Ai Weiwei, who believes that creativity is the power to act and change the status quo, speaks to #legend about his new show at Italy’s Galleria Continua and being a fervent advocate of freedom of expression.
an interest that he credits to his life story. The son of Ai Qing, one of modern China’s most famous poets, Weiwei was born in Beijing in 1957. He grew up in the northwest province
In “According to What?,” Ai Weiwei’s retrospective show, now, at the Hirshhorn Museum in DC, the confluence of art and politics that so characterizes Ai’s oeuvre is on undeniable display—so much so that knowledge of Ai’s various roles as dissident and artist is tantamount to the e...
Ai Weiwei's "Map of China," 2008. Collection of the Faurschou Foundation. Cathy Carver/Hirshhorn Museum Hirshhorn curator Kerry Brougher says that you don't have to know the specific political motivations behind works like "Cube Light," to appreciate the creative genius of Ai Weiwei: "His wo...
"This is how Weiwei likes to do things: when he comes to a city, he takes over a city,” Jamie Manné, deputy director of the Marciano Art Foundation, told TheNew York Times.“It’s definitely not a collaboration, but we’re happy to coordinate with everyone.” RELATED: Surprise! The...
works are so diverse and expansive. He has"destroyed" Han Dynasty Urns, createddocumentariesand asanctuary for cats. Perhaps most beautifully, Ai Weiwei also arranged a largescale cultural exchange through "Fairytale," by having 1001 Chinese people travel to Kassel, Germany. This piece allowed the...
The prospect of a lunchtime encounter with Ai Weiwei, China’s most famous and most political artist, is, frankly, a bit intimidating. Ai, a hulking presence of a man, has been described by past interviewers as brooding, difficult and silent. He is also known for smashing things and, whe...
Appropriately, the visitor is greeted by three examples in different colors from Ai Weiwei’s Study of Perspective in Glass, 2018, the most recent manifestation of the famous gesture of disrespect that first appeared in his work in photographs taken in 1995 and has since acquired a life of its...
ai weiwei and "das ding" (物) He really grabbed my attention when he dropped the Han dynasty urn. Before that, I guess I didn't think much about Ai Weiwei. I am not a huge fan of conceptual art, and I had thought that Ai Weiwei takes conceptual art too far into the realm of th...
Ai Weiwei is famous for crossing boundaries, especially the boundary between art and politics. To appreciate the often contradictory nature of Ai's work, this essay employs multiple narratives: “Ai the Heroic Warrior” who criticizes the Chinese government; “Ai the Court Jester” who plays with...