Back Home
Search

All Results

Generic filters
Search in excerpt
  • About
      • About Smarthistory
      • Press coverage
      • Board of Advisors and Board of Trustees
      • Major donors
      • Smarthistory partners
      • Content editors and contributors
      • Recommended by…
      • A Smarthistory timeline
      • Contribute an essay to Smarthistory
      • Contact Us
      • Support our work
      • We believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background.

        Smarthistory unlocks the expertise of hundreds of scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.
  • Histories of Art
      • Prehistoric
        • Overview of Prehistoric
          • Paleolithic
          • Neolithic
      • Africa
        • Overview of Africa
            • East Africa
            • West Africa
            • North Africa
            • Southern Africa
            • Central Africa
      • Americas
        • Overview of Americas to 1900
            • North America to 1500
            • North America 1500 – 1900
            • South America to 1500
            • South America 1500 – 1900
      • Asia
        • Overview of Asia
            • Hinduism and Buddhism
            • China
            • Japan
            • Korea
            • South Asia
            • Afghanistan
            • Southeast Asia
            • The Himalayas
      • Ancient Mediterranean
        • Overview of Ancient Mediterranean
            • Ancient Near East
            • Egyptian
            • Aegean
            • Greek
            • Nabataean
            • Etruscan
            • Roman
            • Palmyra
      • Medieval Europe & Byzantine
        • Overview of Medieval Europe + Byzantium
            • A beginner’s guide
            • Christianity and art
            • Judaism and art
            • The medieval book
            • Early Christian
            • Byzantine
            • Carolingian
            • Ottonian
            • Romanesque
            • Gothic Art
            • The crusades
      • The Islamic World
        • Overview of the Islamic World
          • Early Period
          • Medieval Period
          • Later period
      • Europe 1300-1800
        • Overview of Europe 1300 – 1800
              • Italy: 14th century
              • Italy: 15th century
              • Italy: 16th century
              • Northern Europe: 15th century
              • Northern Europe: 16th century
              • Spain: 15th and 16th century
              • Reformation and Counter-Reformation
              • Baroque: 17th century
              • Rococo: early to mid 18th century
              • Neoclassicism: late 18th century
              • British: 18th century
      • Europe 1800-1900
        • Overview of Europe: 19th century
            • Romanticism
            • Early Photography
            • Victorian art
            • Realism
            • Second Empire
            • Impressionism
            • Post-Impressionism
            • Symbolism / Art Nouveau
            • The Peredvizhniki
      • Oceania
        • Overview of Oceania
            • Lapita
            • Polynesia
            • Melanesia
            • Micronesia
            • Australia
      • Modernisms 1900-1980
        • Overview of Modernisms 1900 – 1980
            • A beginner’s guide
            • Fauvism + Expressionism
            • Cubism + Early Abstraction
            • Dada + Surrealism
            • German art between the wars
            • Latin American modernism
            • American art to WWII
            • Postwar American art
            • Postwar European art
            • Conceptual + Performance art
            • Post Minimalism
            • Global vanguard
            • Architecture + Design
      • Global cultures 1980 to now
        • Overview of Global Cultures 1980 – now
            • Appropriation and ideological critique
            • Identity and the body
            • Banality and kitsch
            • Ritual, spirituality and transcendence
            • Histories real and imagined
  • Guided learning
      • Start here
          • OVERVIEW
              • Looking at art
              • Approaches to art history
              • Understanding religion in art
              • Understanding museums
              • For the very beginner
              • seeingamericaFeatured | Art that brings U.S. history to life
      • Courses in art history & history
          • OVERVIEW
              • Seeing America – a portal to American history and art
              • ARCHES – At-Risk Cultural Heritage Education Series
              • Teaching with images – For K-12 teachers
              • Other short and long courses – including AP and A-level
              • Art Appreciation
              • Creating + conserving
              • Video creation guide
      • Smarthistory books
        • Overview – More titles coming soon!
            • AP® Art History (vol. 1) – nos. 1 – 47
            • AP® Art History (vol. 2) – nos. 48-98
            • AP® Art History (vol. 3) – nos. 99 – 152
            • AP® Art History (vol. 4) – nos. 153 – 191
            • AP® Art History (vol. 5) – nos. 192 – 250
            • Ancient Near Eastern art
            • Ancient Egyptian Art
            • Ancient Aegean Art
            • Ancient Greek Art
            • Ancient Etruscan art
            • Ancient Roman art
      • Virtual visits – museums & sites
        • Overview – art by location
          • Austria
          • China
          • Egypt
          • France
          • Germany
          • Greece
          • Italy
          • India
          • Japan
          • Mexico
          • Netherlands
          • Peru
          • Russia
          • Spain
          • Turkey
          • United Kingdom
          • United States
  • Commons
  • Support
      • Donate – Help Smarthistory continue to make a difference
      • Contribute an essay – Help make art history relevant and engaging
      • We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free.
Search

Global Cultures 1980-now

Browse this content
A beginner's guide
Contemporary Art, an introduction
The Case for Copying
The Pictures Generation
The YBAs: The London-based Young British Artists
Appropriation and ideological critique
Browse this content
Masami Teraoka, American Kabuki
Ai Weiwei
The Case for Ai Weiwei
Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds)
Remembering and the Politics of Dissent
Hans Haacke, Seurat's "Les Poseuses" (small version), 1884-1975
Keith Haring, Subway Drawings
Anselm Kiefer
Shulamite
Bohemia Lies by the Sea
Julie Mehretu, Stadia II
Doris Salcedo, Shibboleth
Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #21
Untitled #228
Kara Walker, Darkytown Rebellion
Nari Ward, We the People (black version)
Alfredo Jaar, A Logo for America
Identity and the body
Browse this content
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face)
Jamie Wyeth, Kalounna in Frogtown
Marc Quinn, Self
Lucian Freud, Standing by the Rags
Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled (Woman Feeding Bird), from The Kitchen Table Series
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (billboard of an empty bed)
Yinka Shonibare, The Swing (After Fragonard)
Rineke Dijkstra, Odessa, Ukraine, August 4, 1993
Marlene Dumas, Models
Shirin Neshat, Rebellious Silence, Women of Allah series
Pepón Osorio, En la barberia no se llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop)
Kiki Smith, Lying with the Wolf
Wangechi Mutu, Preying Mantra
Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present
Alison Saar, Topsy and the Golden Fleece
Banality and kitsch
Browse this content
Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
Jeff Koons, Pink Panther
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People)
Michel Tuffery, Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000)
Thiebaud, Ponds and Streams
Jeff Wall, A View from an Apartment
Stéphane Couturier, Fenetre, Eastlake Greens, San Diego
Nari Ward, We the People (black version)
Ritual, spirituality, and transcendence
Browse this content
Roger Minick, Woman with Scarf at Inspiration Point, Yosemite National Park
Mariko Mori, Pure Land
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Earth’s Creation
Bruce Nauman, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths
Chris Ofili, The Holy Virgin Mary
Clarissa Rizal, Resilience Robe
Bill Viola, The Crossing
Xu Bing, Book from the Sky
James Turrell, Skyscape, the way of color
Histories, real and imagined
Browse this content
El Anatsui
El Anatsui, Untitled
El Anatsui, Old Man’s Cloth
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Horn Players
Sue Coe, Aids won't wait, the enemy is here not in Kuwait
Thornton Dial, Blood and Meat: Survival For The World
Titus Kaphar, The Cost of Removal
William Kentridge, drawing from Tide Table (Soho in Deck Chair)
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Nam June Paik, Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii
Sigmar Polke, Watchtower series
What's in a map? Jaune Quick-To-See Smith's State Names (2000)
Wendy Red Star, 1880 Crow Peace Delegation
Gerhard Richter
The Cage Paintings (1-6)
Uncle Rudi
Betty
September
Roger Shimomura, Diary: December 12, 1941
Sebastião Salgado’s Kuwait
Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps
Kenseth Armstead, Surrender Yorktown 1781
Maya Lin, Silver Upper White River
Courtney Leonard, ARTIFICE Ellipse, 2016
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Native Hosts (Arkansas)

The Case for Ai Weiwei

by The Art Assignment

Speaker: Sarah Urist Green

Additional resources:

Ai WeiWei’s website

Ai WeiWei on Art21

Cite this page as: The Art Assignment, "The Case for Ai Weiwei," in Smarthistory, August 2, 2017, accessed July 11, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/case-for-ai-weiwei/.

Sign up for our newsletter!

Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content.

At Smarthistory we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other provider.

  • Donate
  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Contact Us
facebook icon
twitter icon
instagram icon
youtube icon
flickr icon
  • About Smarthistory
  • Smarthistory’s blog
  • Contribute an essay
  • Content editors and contributors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

· © 2020 Smarthistory · Designed by Press Customizr · Powered by ·