Hundreds of shoelaces form just three words. Here, the artist takes an abstract idea and makes it immediate.
Critiquing ideologies
Ai Weiwei synthesizes the clash between reverence for the past and the irrepressible drive for the future.
The Case for Ai Weiwei
Using the language of advertising, Jaar conveys a political message about who “Americans” really are.
Alfredo Jaar, A Logo for America
Haring’s subway drawings were born from his desire to create art that was accessible for everyone.
Keith Haring, Subway Drawings
Wiley wryly places himself alongside the great master painters of history with his reimagined Napoleon.
Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over ...
Tuffery’s iconic “tinned bull” addresses contemporary concerns about ecological health and food sovereignty
Michel Tuffery, Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef ...
Richter revives the genre of history painting in the 21st century in this work showing the events of 9/11.
Gerhard Richter, September
John Cage and Richter never met, but there was a kinship between these two artists with diverse practices.
Gerhard Richter, The Cage Paintings (1-6)
Xu Bing’s text is illegible—even to those who can read Chinese.
Xu Bing, Book from the Sky
Hyperreal paintings like “Betty” are just one part of Richter’s practice, which resists stylistic classification.
Gerhard Richter, Betty
Over 100 million porcelain seeds filled the Tate’s Turbine Hall in a critique of conformity and censorship.
Ai Weiwei, Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds)
When thousands of schoolchildren died in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Ai Weiwei refused to stay silent.
Ai Weiwei, Remembering and the Politics of ...
In this work, a contemporary Ethiopian artist explores the utopian potential of chaos in a globalizing world.
Julie Mehretu, Stadia II
Why watch the tides when you can read about it in the newspaper? Kentridge comments on social class in this drawing.
William Kentridge, drawing from Tide Table (Soho ...
Neshat’s series examines the complexities of women’s identities in the Middle East’s changing cultural landscape.
Shirin Neshat, Rebellious Silence, Women of Allah ...
Cheap fabric with a garish print becomes an eerie specter of surveillance thanks to some creative chemistry.
Sigmar Polke, Watchtower series
Hugh Hefner turned women into objects, and Sigmar Polke turned those objects into dots.
Sigmar Polke, Bunnies
Richter toys with both visual and ethical clarity in this evocative, ambiguous painting of an uncle lost to WWII.