Omschrijving
Renowned for his political remarks and social media activity almost as much as for his social interventions, contemporary approach to the readymade, and knowledge of Chinese traditional crafts, Ai Weiwei’s fame extends throughout and beyond the art world. Drawn from TASCHEN’s Collector’s Edition, this monograph explores each of Ai’s career phases up until his release from Chinese custody.
“What Picasso was to the 20th century, Ai Weiwei is to the 21st, and if our century is to be the Chinese Century, then it’s fitting that the greatest artist of the age is Chinese. TASCHEN’s new book, meticulously edited and lavishly produced, is the closest you’re going to get to an appreciation of Ai’s work without actually attending one of his exhibitions.”
Born in Beijing in 1957, Ai Weiwei is renowned for making strong aesthetic statements that resonate across today’s geopolitical world. From architecture to sculpture and installations, social media to documentaries, he uses a wide range of media for new ways of artistically examining society and its values. He is the recipient of the 2015 Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International and the 2012 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent from the Human Rights Foundation. Ai’s first feature-length documentary Human Flow premiered at the 74th Venice Film Festival in competition. He currently lives and works in Cambridge, Berlin, and Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal. Hans Werner Holzwarth is a book designer and editor specializing in contemporary art and photography. His TASCHEN publications include the Collector’s Editions Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Albert Oehlen, Beatriz Milhazes, Ai Weiwei, Georg Baselitz, Julian Schnabel, and the David Hockney SUMO A Bigger Book, as well as monographs such as the XXL-sized Jean-Michel Basquiat.