Artist Ai Weiwei was on hand last week to film and upload a large fight on Beijng’s Ghost Street between ethnic Tibetan and ethnic Han Chinese street vendors.  The video quickly went viral, gaining the attention of viewers worldwide.  “I had arrived in the middle of the fight,” he said later. “I saw someone lying on the ground with blood.” (more…)

On top of his widely recognized work as an artist and political activist, Ai Weiwei is also apparently a skilled barber.  Weiwei was recently documented giving haircuts to several fellow diners at a Chinese restaurant by Beijing Cream.  “I’ve given hundreds,” the artist said. “I could make a book out of it.” (more…)

The Two Zodiac Heads to be Returned to China, via China Radio International

French president François Hollande has embarked on his first visit to China, accompanied by a number of high-profile French business heads.  Among them is François-Henri Pinault, the Kering CEO and Christie’s head who has brought a gift of two bronze statues looted from the Beijing Summer Palace in 1860.   (more…)

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has been invited by Creative Time Reports to publish his thoughts on the role of writing as criticism in the face of authoritarian censorship.  The artist, who was detained by the government last year, calls on internet users in China and abroad to use the system to oppose oppression by speaking out.  He writes: “Every day we put the state on trial—a moral trial, conducted with logic and reasoning. Nothing could be better than this. I am preparing a budding civil society to imagine change. First, you need people to recognize they need change. Then you need them to recognize how to make change. Finally, change will come.” (more…)

Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei will create a new installation this summer along the Emscher River in Germany’s Ruhr Region for the Emscherkunst triennial arts festival.  The artist plans to erect 1,000 small tents along the river, allowing festival-goers to stay in the tents for a small fee.  “The idea is to let normal people participate” says festival curator Florian Matzner. (more…)

Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei has announced plans to release an album of heavy metal, inspired by his 81 days in detention in 2011, and his political stance towards the Chinese government.  Called “Divina Commedia,” the title is a comic play on the nickname “Ai God”  that he has earned among his supporters.  “You know, I’m a person that’s furthest away from music, I never sing,” Ai said. “But you’ll be surprised. You’ll like it.” (more…)

#AIWW: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, a new play detailing the arrest and detainment of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in April of 2011, will open this year in London.  Based on conversations between the artist and author Barnaby Martin following Ai’s release in June of 2011, the show will depict the series of events leading up to and during his detainment.  “Weiwei is a natural raconteur and although he was still deeply traumatised by his experience inside, he went back through the experiences of his detention and recounted, in his inimitable English, the most incredible and bizarre story I have ever heard,” says Martin. (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Rebars-Lucerne (Installation View) via Galerie Urs Meile

Blurring the line between social, political and artistic space, the work of dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei uses his practice to give voice to marginalized facets of the Chinese cultural and political landscape.  His is an art of awareness, presenting the political-social climate of China in his own terms, merging the presentation of his art with that of his own experience. (more…)

A fan clip of M.I.A. performing Paper Planes at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale – click to watch

12/12/12 at 12:00 opened the first-ever Indian Biennial, held in the South Indian city of Kochi, Kerala, 30 kilometers from the historic Muziris islands. Twenty-three of the eighty-two showcased artists in the Biennale are native to the state, with more than forty from India. The remaining artists come from all over the world, including Ai Weiwei (China), Ernesto Neto (Brazil), Cyprien Gaillard (France), and Wangechi Mutu (Kenya) among others. Musician M.I.A., whose family is originally Sri Lankan, inaugurated the showcase with her own Indian performing debut, additionally contributing her own hologram-based artworks to be viewed throughout the exhibitions. Modeled after the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris runs for three months, through March 13th, 2013. (more…)

“Weiwei-isms”, a new book by Ai Weiwei that was published this month by Princeton University Press, provides a look into the Chinese dissident artist’s view on political affairs and human rights issues. “During my detention, they kept asking me: Ai Weiwei, what is the reason you have become like this today? My answer is: First, I refuse to forget. My parents, my family, their whole generation and my generation all paid a great deal in the struggle for freedom of speech. Many people died just because of one sentence or even one word. Somebody has to take responsibility for that.” (from Der Spiegel, Nov. 21, 2011)
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Ai Weiwei, Forge, He Xie detail, courtesy Mary Boone Gallery

Ai Weiwei‘s Forge is single show across both of Mary Boone Gallery’s Fifth Avenue and Chelsea locations, with installation, video and sculpture that provides a comprehensive look into recent work, and which runs concurrently with his exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum. Ai is an artist, human rights activist, and Chinese dissident who produces thoughtfully provocative, political work. Forge falls firmly in that tradition.

Ai was born in Beijing in 1957 and attended the Beijing Film academy before moving to New York in 1981. He graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1983 and returned to China in 1993, where he currently lives. Though his website and blog have been brutally censored, Ai remains active on Twitter, and video transmissions from him are frequently released, including a recent take on ‘Gangnam Style’ in which he dances, waving around handcuffs.

Exhibition view, Ai Weiwei, Forge, courtesy Mary Boone Gallery

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Anish Kapoor’s video, “Gangnam for Freedom”, supporting Ai Weiwei’s quest for free speech, relied on major participants such as Southbank Centre director Jude Kelly and writer Hanif Kueishi, with contributions by institutions such as the Guggenheim. “Our film aims to make a serious point about freedom of speech and freedom of expression”, said Kapoor. (more…)

Ai Weiwei’s “Gangnam Style” video unwittingly focused attention on two relatively low-profile collectors and museum founders, Jens and Luise Faurschou. They own a major collection of postwar and modern artwork and recently opened a privately funded art museum in Copenhagen, Foundation Faurschou. (more…)

Anish Kapoor has enlisted Mark Wallinger, Bob and Roberta Smith, Tom Phillips and other art world heavyweights such as Alison Myners, chair of the ICA, and Tamara Rojo, artistic director of the English National Ballet to create a Gangnam Style video in support of Ai Weiwei. “It had to be done,” said Kapoor, “Yes, it is desperately silly, but what is the paradigm of the artist? The artist does stupid things with serious intent.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei plans to return $1.3 million he received from supporters to fight his legal battle against Chinese authorities. He raised the money as a bond to contest a $2.4-million fine for tax evasion. He lost his final appeal against the Bejing authorities last month. (more…)

FIAC crowds, photo by Tiphaine Popesco for Art Observed

FIAC closed today, Sunday October 21st, with dealers reporting strong sales and a collective sigh of relief that the proposed inclusion of artwork over €50,000 to France’s wealth tax had not passed.  The fair was, by all accounts, well-organized and exhibited an impressive program of young galleries alongside work by established blue-chip artists. This year the fair added exhibition space in the Salon d’Honneur, the newly-renovated upper floor of the historic Grand Palais.  In past years the fair has seen more European collectors, but this year dealers reported sales to many collectors from Asia, Russia and the Middle East as well. The fair was directed by Jennifer Flay.

Marc Quinn, The Origin of the World, 2012, photo by Tiphaine Popesco for Art Observed

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A woman ranked #1 on Art Review’s Power 100 of 2012 for the first time ever. The Bulgarian curator, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, topped the list for her dOCUMENTA (13) exhibition in Kassel.  After 100 days of being open to the public, the fair received a total number of 887,000 visitors. The Power 100 is based on “a combination of influence over the production of art internationally, sheer financial clout … and activity in the previous 12 months”. Numbers, 2, 3, 4 and 5, are Larry Gagosian, Ai Weiwei, Iwan Wirth and David Zwirner, respectively. (more…)

Gerhard Richter (b. 1932), 5 Türen II (5 Doors II) via Christie’s
Sold for: £2,169,250 ($3,466,462)
Estimate: £1,500,000 – £2,000,000 ($2,397,000 – $3,196,000)

Postwar & Contemporary Evening Sale
Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Auction on October 11th realized a sale total, including buyer’s premium, of  £23,177,900 ($37,158,809) with 47 of 64 lots sold. The Evening Auction featured three artists whose work has not previously been included in an evening sale: Idris Khan, Rebecca Warren and Jonathan Wateridge.  It also included a group of important self-portraits by Martin Kippenberger that include his seminal work on canvas Untitled (from the series Hand-Painted Pictures), twelve self-portraits on paper and his sculpture Immer an der Wand Beißen bei Susan.  Also notable was Gerhard Richter’s 5 Türen II (above), a masterwork from 1967 which has never been at auction or offered privately. 5 Türen II is related in theme to 5 Türen I (1967), which is at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne.  The auction also highlighted figurative sculpture from the early 80s onward.

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Image: Ai Weiwei: According to What? Installation View: Coca Cola Vase, New York Photographs, Moon Chest, Courtesy The Hirshhorn

The first U.S. survey of the work of Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. Beijing, 1957) opened on October 7th at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. It takes its inspiration from a 2009 exhibition at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, but has been adapted for U.S. audiences  incorporating the artist’s re-examination of the work in the context of his personal experiences over the past few years.

Image: Ai Weiwei Courtesy The Washington Post

Mr. Ai, 55, has personally experienced many changes since 2009: he was detained for 81 days last year and was found guilty of tax evasion in China, owing $2.4 million in fines. The Chinese government shut down his business and has not allowed him to leave the country, which prevented him from attending the opening for his retrospective in Washington.

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Fake Cultural Development, Ai Weiwei’s company which handles his affairs, is being dissolved by the Chinese government. This may prevent him from having to pay the remaining balance of a 15m yuan (£1.5m) tax fine. The authorities stated that they were closing down the business because it had not met annual registration requirements. Ai represents that they could not do so because police had confiscated all its materials and its stamp when they detained him last year. (more…)

Ai Weiwei will be unable to attend his first U.S. retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum, he says, because the Chinese authorities are still in possession of his passport.  He also says that he will be unable to begin his post as a visiting professor in Germany. “They’re still holding my passport. They said they want to give it to me but have no clear time schedule for that”.

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A Chinese court upheld the decision that Ai Weiwei must pay $2.4 million in fines for tax evasion. He still owes about 6.6 million yuan ($1.05 million), but says he will not pay the remainder. Although he may face prison time for nonpayment, Ai stated that payment would be an acknowledgement of the legal validity of the charges. (more…)

Image: Warhol’s Cow Wallpaper and Silver Pillows, The New York Times

“Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years” is a group show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that juxtaposes fifty Warhol works with one hundred of those by his peers and successors. The show attempts to capture the scope and breadth of Warhol’s impact on contemporary art history. Presented 25 years after his death at the age of 58 in 1987, the exhibition showcases the works of both artists who have risen to fame after Warhol’s death as well that of his contemporaries. Some of the artists included are Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Robert Gober, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman, Ed Ruscha, Alex Katz, Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter.

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Germany surprises the art community with its announcement of 4 artists selected to represent the country in the next Venice Biennale: Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Indian photographer Dayanita Singh, German film director/writer/producer Romuald Karmakar and South African photographer Santu Mofokeng. The curator, Susanne Gaensheimer, said that all of the artists work in Germany’s art scene and that Germany sees itself as “an active participant in a complex, worldwide constellation”. (more…)