Ai Weiwei
AI WEIWEI CEDAR (SMALL) Chinese Contemporary Modern Activism Tree Tradition Ink

Name: AI WEIWEI CEDAR (SMALL) Chinese Contemporary Modern Activism Tree Tradition Ink
Brand: Ai Weiwei
Rating: 5 (11 reviews)

$3,828.32List Price

About the Item

Ai Weiwei - CEDAR (SMALL) Date of creation: 2022 Medium: Screenprint on Somerset Velvet Antique paper Edition: 150 Size: 47.5 x 38 cm Condition: In mint conditions, brand new and never framed Screen print on Somerset Velvet Antique 280gsm paper hand signed and numbered by the artist of a limited edition of 150 copies. When Ai Weiwei creates these trees, the artist emphasizes his interest in the physical and aesthetic qualities of material and its transformative nature. The way things can have another meaning or use, the transformation that leads to a rebirth of the object is a theme that recalls the taoism fundamentals. In this case, the trunks and branches create a new tree that is not intended to look like a natural grown tree. "My work is always ready made. It could be cultural, political, or social, and also it could be art – to make people re-look at what we have done, its original position, to create new possibilities. I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later." - Ai Weiwei ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Beijing, China in 1957, Ai Weiwei grew up during the Cultural Revolution and lived through the exile of his father, the well-known Chinese modern poet Ai Qing. The family was sent to a labor camp as a result of his father's denunciation during the 1957-59 purge of the Anti-Rightist Movement, and were subsequently exiled to Shihezi, Xinjiang, in China's far west. This event, although early in his life, would shape him into the activist he is today. The family did not return to Beijing until 1976, after the end of the Cultural Revolution, after which Ai studied animation at the Beijing Film Academy. At this time he founded the avant-garde art group Stars together with fellow artists Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Zhong Acheng and Qui Leilei. He then spent just over a decade in New York, where he briefly attended Parsons School of Design and the Art Students League. In the 1980s, he found his calling in New York's East Village, where he delved into photography while participating in all the protest movements going on around him. During his stay in the Big Apple, he was inspired by the French artist Marcel Duchamp and the German sculptor Joseph Beuys. Under these influences flourished some of his early sculptures, which would later be recognized as one of his first creative phases. This was a time when Ai Weiwei gave free rein to his freedom of expression, the more anti-authoritarian and oppositional the statement, the better. When his father became ill in the early 1990s, Ae returned to China, an environment far less open to such views. In Ai's words, "China and the United States are two societies with very different attitudes toward opinion and criticism." He saw the difference and refused to conform. Since then, Ai Weiwei has risked much to defend freedom of expression, for example, by responding strongly to the devastating aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre through his work. Thus he invented his trademark, the middle finger extended in front of famous places or institutions of power. By carefully selecting the setting for his photographs, Ai Weiwei used these opportunities to illustrate his disdain for the mechanisms of power and to raise awareness of the unfair treatment of citizens. His mission would be to represent the power of the people and denounce the injustices of the world. In 2008, Ai was commissioned to collaborate with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron on the "Bird's Nest" stadium for the Beijing Olympics; he later referred to the project as a "tasteless fake smile." In May of the following year, Ai's influential and widely read blog, where he posted scathing criticisms of Chinese government policies, was shut down. The following August, the artist was beaten by Chinese police for attempting to testify on behalf of Tan Zuoren, with whom he had investigated the aftermath of the devastating 8.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Sichuan province in May 2008. Also as a result of his activist work, in 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested and held for 81 days without being charged with any crime. His "SACRED" series, premiered in Venice during the 2013 Biennale, was based directly on his detention experience (governments, artists and individuals around the world protested strongly against his arrest and subsidized his bail). Ai Weiwei is the most famous Chinese artist today. As an activist, he draws attention to human rights violations on an epic scale; as an artist, he expands the definition of art to include new forms of social engagement. In a country where freedom of expression is not recognized as a right, he has been beaten by police, kept under house arrest, had his newly built studio demolished and placed under surveillance. He is considered a threat to "harmonious society". From breaking an antique vase to reciting the names of children killed by government neglect, Ai's dramatic actions highlight the growing gap between the ideal and the real in Chinese society. He is also one of the first conceptual artists to use social media-Instagram and Twitter, in particular-as one of his primary mediums. Trained in the West, Ai is intimately familiar with tradition, conceptual and minimalist art, and knows how to combine all of these concepts. In his refusal to please the eye, he is the opposite of Jeff Koons, his equally famous contemporary. In their visual austerity, Ai's pieces coincide with the work of other global activists, such as David Hammons, Robert Gober and Doris Salcedo, whose large-scale projects draw attention to weighty social issues, breaking free from the constraints of the gallery and or museum, and bridging the visual and the social.

Creator:
Ai Weiwei (1957, Chinese)
Dimensions:
Height: 18.71 in (47.5 cm)Width: 14.97 in (38 cm)
Medium:
Paper,Screen
Movement & Style:
Conceptual
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Madrid, ES
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1033116361052

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Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei was born in northwest China but was sent to a labor camp in Beidahuang, Heilongjiang, when he was only a year old. There he was raised for the early years of his life. His father Aì Qīng’s involvement in the Anti-Rightist Movement led to the family's exile shortly afterward to Shihezi, Xinjiang, where Ai spent the duration of his childhood. Upon Mao Zedong’s death, the family returned to Beijing in 1976.

Following the family’s return home, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy to study animation in 1978. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde art group the Stars alongside contemporaries Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Mao Lizi, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Ah Cheng and Qu Leilei. The Stars disbanded in the 1980s, but Ai participated in regular shows that recalled the ten years that the group had been together, including at the Hanart Gallery in 1989 and the retrospective 2007 exhibition at Beijing's Origin Point.

Ai moved to the USA in 1981, among the earliest of students to study abroad following China’s reform in 1980, which afforded him the opportunity to take the TOEFL in 1981. He lived in Philadelphia and then in San Francisco, studying English at the University of California, Berkeley. Afteward, Ai studied at Parsons School of Design in New York City and attended the Art Students League of New York from 1983 to 1986. He initially made a living by drawing street portraits.

Immersing himself in the Pop art scene, which was rapidly gaining popularity, Ai began creating conceptual art and photography. Ai returned to China after his father became ill in 1993, and while there he helped to establish the experimental art scene called Beijing East Village. In 1999, Ai built a studio house in Beijing — his first architectural project. Ai founded the architecture studio FAKE Design in 2003, and co-curated the art exhibition "Fuck Off" with Feng Boyi in Shanghai.

In 2011, Ai was arrested and jailed. Released after 81 days, the government confiscated his passport. His release was in part due to the uproar of the art world against his charges of tax evasion; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the International Council of Museums both organized petitions, collecting almost 100,000 signatures calling for his release. When he reclaimed his passport in 2015, Ai moved to Berlin and lived in a studio. It became a base for him to create his international work.

Ai is the artistic director of China Art Archives & Warehouse. The experimental gallery and archive, co-founded by Ai in 1997, concentrates on experimental art from the People’s Republic of China, initiating and facilitating exhibitions both in China and internationally.

Ai's work is in the collections of museums worldwide, including the Tate, London; Arken, London; Brooklyn Museum, New York; and the RA, London. His international architectural collaborations, including the Beijing National Stadium and the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, have consistently been met with critical acclaim.

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

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