Ai Weiwei: The Most Famous Artist

Vincent van Gogh is one of the world’s most well-known artists. He was the son of a pastor and was brought up in a religious atmosphere. He thought his true calling was to preach the gospel like his father. He became a preacher in a small coal mining town. This is when he starting becoming very interested in the people and things that surrounded him. He became an artist at the age of 27.

1. Clary, Greg. “Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei’s art becomes his messenger”. CNN. CNN, 25 Oct. 2012. Web. 11 Sep. 2014. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/13/us/weiwei-exhibit-washington/

The United States is the "land of the free, and the home of the brave" according to the song, but there is a dichotomy that exists between those who have called the United States their home for a long period of time, and those who are immigrating to the US. Asian Americans are a group that very few think of as having difficulties because the stereotype is of a group that is intelligent and is actually doing better than the average American. While this may seem to be true, better grades in a school setting does not mean that people who come from other countries are not experiencing racism (both overt and subtle), stereotyping and alienation in this country. Although there has been some difficulty, many groups are experiencing newfound hope because of the actions that they are taking. The plight, and the hope of the Asian cultures are being documented by artists of different stripes who are eager to depict what has happened to Asians as they try to build their own America, and assimilate into the one that was built before they came. In this paper, the Asian American cultures will be examined through the art that has been produced over the many years that Asian people have striven to make their way as new Americans.

A legacy is not based on what you wear or who you hang out with, it’s based on what you do with your life that impacts the lives of others. During World War II there where many people who did things to save the lives of other but put their own lives at risk at the same time. A man or woman who does this not only gives themselves great honor but also the people who helped them, whether they helped them with one little thing or with something that impacted the world. One of these people was a man by the name of Feng-Shan Ho.

Ai Weiwei was born during the Cultural Revolution in China of 1950s, he inherited a lot of his political knowledge from his father who was a poet called Ai Quig. Ai Quig was then later exiled with his family to re-education camps on the out reaches of a desert in 1958 for questioning government authority. After the Cultural Revolution, Chinese citizens were allowed to travel outside their borders again in 1970s. As a young man, the place that Ai Weiwei dreamed about going to was New York. He went to New York and was exposed to its western influences, its liberty and freedom of expression (Springford, 2011).Using photography Weiwei recorded and documented everything that inspired him. Weiwei visited galleries and art museums that exposed

Art among the Asian-American community was a prized possession. Eastern art was dominated from themes of religion, customs, and expression. There was a diversity in how art was made, as the genres were dimensional, pop-out, and a wide variety of stilled art. Art, of course differed among the sub-types, with each having a different discipline towards eastern art. They include the following: ​

Xu Bing’s is a Chinese artist who studied printmaking at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. His style of art is defined as social realist which was greatly influenced by his time at a re-education camp during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960’s and 70’s. he favored the popular phrase in that time “ Use your pen as a weapon and shoot down reactionary gangs”. Bing’s father was a historian and his mother was an administrator in the library of science. A Book from the Sky is a four volume printed bound book a total of 604 pages invented 4,000 characters and hand-carved them into wood blocks with walnut wooden cases written in 1988-1991.It is classified as sculpture. It is filled with false Chinese characters, invented by Xu Bing then he cut out pear wood to create the movable type printing technique invented by the Chinese in the 11th century. He uses a traditional Chinese typesetting, and binding stringing. ”Each sheet is folded to make two pages; there are nine columns per page and up to seventeen characters per column. Each double-page sheet is folded along the center line of the print rack and stitch bound. Six-hole stitching , a blank paper lining folded into each –double page covered corner, and blue-dyed volume covers all derived from traditional Chinese book of binding of the highest quality.

Ai Weiwei [b. August 28, 1957] Born in Beijing, China, artist and activist Ai WeiWei stands as one of the most well-known and outspoken critics of the Chinese government. His work is multidisciplinary, extending across sculpture, photography, installation, and filmmaking. Ai’s most notable work, Sunflower Seeds (2010), contains 100 million hand-painted porcelain seeds, and acts as a commentary on the loss of the individual in mass production. In 2011, Ai was detained by Chinese authorities under suspicious charges for three months, followed by thee long years of restricted travel (lifted in 2015). Despite being under China’s scrutinizing eye, Ai continues to make provocative artwork and politically charged posts and tweets. In engaging the global community through social media, he has managed to bring attention to the corruption of his country, and has made his voice heard on an international scale.

Born in 1957, Ai Weiwei is an artist and activist, who is heavily influenced by his father’s political thinking about China. He is well known for his combination of art and society. Ai Weiwei began as a self-taught artist and worked as a painter and cartoon designer in the Beijing Film Academy. In 1981, Ai went to America because he could not express freely in China. In the United States, he studied at the Parsons School of Design and Art Student League. When Ai flew back to China, he brought back different ideas from the American Democratic system. He did several political activities and was arrested in April 2011, and released in June 2011 (Lao). The museum will display Ai Weiwei’s artworks for the winter season because his works are valuable culturally, unique and going to be popular.

Ai Weiwei was born in August 28, 1957, a time period in which the chinese government attacked enemies who did not like the government. His father was sent into exile along with his family away from China due to some of his work being not liked by the government. He was sent to do hard labor. Artists who did not put art that the government did not like were put into a prison. After Mao Zedong died, his policies were abandoned, and Ai Weiwei’s family was brought out of exile. Ai Weiwei then left China and went to New York. He made art that were objects with changes that made it different in New York. He moved back to China later. He stayed in China for his father. In China, he changed furniture and made it like art that was strange. He helped

Ai Weiwei, a Chinese contemporary artist as well as a political activist was born in Beijing on May 18, 1957. When Ai was only one year old him and his family were sent to a labor camp. It was not for sixteen years later at the end of the Cultural Revolution until his family moved back to Beijing. He studied animation at the Beijing Film Academy in 1978. After his studies he spent about twelve years in the United States and studied at the Parsons School of Design where he soon dropped out. For income he became a street artist, doing drawings on the side. When his father had become sick in 1993, Ai returned to Beijing from New York City. He then became the artist director and co-founder of the China Art Achieves and Warehouse. This is about the time when some controversial pieces are now starting to come about. In 1993, Ai Weiwei then had moved to the North side of China in a town called Coachanghdi, this is where he started to do architectural work, including his studio house. This is when he founded the FAKE design, which is an architectural studio. Ai’s biggest controversial issue is when he was arrested on false tax evasions and detained for three months. After his arrest Ai Weiwei is no longer permitted to leave China and is under tight security by the Chinese government. He is not allowed to leave the country because he is under other criminal investigations, which include pornography, illegal exchange of foreign currency, and bigamy. Everyone in support of him is

When you think about art, particularly the kind you might find in a museum, the phrase, “you can look, but don’t touch,” might come to mind. While a lot of art is delicate and designed to hang on a wall or sit on a shelf, some artists think art should be used in everyday life. One of those artists is Miro Chin.

These artwork makes us realized that individual life, media, and the lives of the students are serving very different purposes. Weiwei can also be our inspiration to fight what is right without considering the possible consequences.

(REFERENCE) According to the editors of ‘ArtReview’, he is listed as the world’s number one most influential person in the art community. (REFERENCE) After producing many scandalous art pieces and blog posts which criticised Chinese government policy and acted as social commentary, Ai WeiWei was arrested at the Beijing Capital International Airport and his studio was searched by Chinese officials under a claim that he had tax evasion. (REFERENCE) Many believe this was a false claim that was an attempt of political retaliation for his outspoken criticism of the government which was used to control and prohibit him from producing more artworks. This lead to his arrest being widely protested by international governments, human rights groups and various art institutions which called for his release. However, after eight one days spent in prison, Ai Weiwei produced a body of work titled ‘S.A.C.R.E.D’, an installation that confront viewers with Ai’s experience in solitary detention. His treatment by the Chinese government both affected and united communities around the world and brought attention to ideas and process that the government would prefer to

II’m presenting my Artwork, Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft, c. 1662, Oil on canvas, 38½” X 46¼” (97.8 X 117.5cm). I traded a famous painting, Louis or Antoine Le Nain, A Peasant Family in an Interior, c. 1640, Oil on canvas, 44 ½” X 62 ½” (1.13 X 1.59 m) for this excellent Masterpiece of Vermeer. Vermeer painted a well-detailed picture of the city of Delft, his hometown.