Ai Weiwei
1957 Peking
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese conceptual artist, sculptor and curator. The human rights activist and dissident was imprisoned from April to June 2011 after making statements critical of the government during the 2011 protests in China and was banned from traveling until 2015. He then left the country, lived in Berlin until 2019, then in England and since 2021 in Portugal.
He has achieved cult status in the art world. He is such a major figure that Princeton University Press has published a book of his quotes as “Weiwei-isms”.
In 2019, a large-scale exhibition is dedicated to the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. The exhibition at the “Kunstsammlung NRW” offers a comprehensive overview of his work spanning four decades and focuses on key themes that have characterized his work since the 1980s: the refugee crisis and the tension between individuality and the state. With his dissident statements against the Chinese government and as a persecuted dissident, Ai Weiwei is usually perceived as a political art activist, while his most recent works are mostly based on the fundamental idea of humanity, be it the Sichuan earthquake, the global refugee crisis or issues of freedom of expression.
The activist is an artist, the artist is also an activist.
Or as Ai Weiwei himself puts it: “Everything is art. Everything is politics”.
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It is remarkable in a double sense that Ai Weiwei's statement “Everything is art. Everything is politics”, here on a wooden sculpture - the classic stand-up man.
Sculpture made of wood
Titled "Everything is art. Everything is politics”.
Unnumbered artist's work
Size 15 cm
Provenance | Artist's Atelier, Gallery Germany, Private Collection Denmark
Differential taxation according to § 25a UStG. No taxes included. | Differenzbesteuerung nach § 25a UStG. Kunstgegenstände und Sammlungsstücke, Sonderregelung.
