ART255W Delta College Ai Weiwei Contemporary Art Paper

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ART255W

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My artist I chosen is Ai Weiwei, he is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural.


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Final Research Paper (100pts) For this final assignment, you will be researching either a specific artist or a specific movement. You may choose any artist or movement from 1970 onward. You may pick an artist or movement from our text if you wish, but you will have to go into much more depth than we did in class. You will also be required to talk about work by that artist or from that movement other than what we covered in discussion. NO DUPLICATES. A signup sheet will be passed around the week after this is assigned to be sure there is no overlap in topics between students. This assignment will consist of the following components: • • • 5-7 page research paper in MLA Due no later than Friday, August 16th at 10 pm o Paper Draft (10 points): On Tuesday, July 2nd: Bring two copies for your rough draft – to include your works cited page – to class for review. Final Paper (100 points—10 points of this grade comes from your draft) o The final paper should include a Works Cited page. Papers are to be 5-7 pages in length, double-spaced and in the MLA format. In addition to your 5-7 written pages you should have a works cited page; cover page with your name, the date and title; as well as photocopies of any images referenced in your paper. o Final Paper due August 16th before 10pm. You are to submit the paper to the proper dropbox on eLearning before the deadline. Requirements: • Topic is presented in a clear and logical format, creativity is a plus • 3 artworks analyzed using any of the methodologies • Be Creative! No limits on creativity. • Sources must be cited for information and for images, parenthetically on the slides/in the text. • Works cited, Minimum 8 valid sources • MLA style • A copy of the presentation is also uploaded to the Dropbox. No late presentations will be accepted. Research Evaluation: 100 Points • Thorough research, background, context, etc - 30 pts • Explains important aspects of artwork/artist/movement - 30 pts • Analyzes 3 artworks using the methodologies - 10 pts • Clear, organized, Grammar, spelling, length, MLA style (works cited) – 20 pts (points subtracted for incorrect format & less than 5 citations ) • Final 10 points come from bringing a draft to class on Tuesday July 2 nd for workshopping Written work must adhere to the following guidelines: • Use a standard font (i.e. Times New Roman), 12 point, Double space, using 1inch margins • Number pages starting with the first page of text (not the cover page). • Your name should appear on each page. • Include a cover page with your name, paper title or assignment title, and date. • Staple pages together; please do not use plastic folders. • Spell check and proofread all drafts and papers before handing them in, students with un-proofed work may receive a 0 on their assignment. • Any work that you submit for this class may be read by other members of the class.
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Contemporary Art History-Ai Weiwei

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Introduction
Ai Weiwei is the most recognized Chinese contemporary artist ("Ai Weiwei | Artnet").
Weiwei’s provocative mixture of Chinese tradition and history in modern practices is perceived
as cultural commentary, human rights activism, and assessment of the global inequities of power.
Weiwei was born in 1957 in Beijing, China to a renowned poet, Ai Qing, a former member of
the Chinese Communist Party ("Ai Weiwei | Artnet"). His father was accused of being "rightist"
opposition to the government, and therefore the family was banished to a labor camp in
Heilongjiang, rural northeast China. Weiwei and his family lived in the labor camp for 16 years
and returned to Beijing after the death of Mao Zedong and end of the Cultural Revolution of
1976. Upon return, Weiwei joined the Beijing Film Academy where he participated in the
formation of the Stars Group, a new avant-garde art group in China (Lucas 28. In his formative
years as an artist in New York, Weiwei was inspired by leading figures in visual art movement
such as Andy Warhol to create daring and politically charged performances that define how the
world views contemporary China. Weiwei has been active in art since 1980, majoring in
conceptual art, performance art, capitalist realism art, installation art, and excessive art. Weiwei
uses various genres or medium- performance, ready-mades, sculpture, photography, architecture,
and blogs to pass his message (Steinfeld 14).
Weiwei is a scholar, artist, photographer, filmmaker, and architect. He is a great critic of
the Chinese government, calling the regime to accountability for human rights violations,
censorship, and punishment for dissenters (Steinfeld 12). As an excessivist artist, Weiwei's
paintings are built by thick layers of paint, highlighting the role of the material as the carrier of
the message, the theme, and object of its complex narrative. For example, when Weiwei splashed
models with paint as a photoshoot for Dover Street Market Fashion Editorial in "V Magazine" he

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used painting as a form of social turbulence. The color palette, the shape of the paint, and the
picture composition were carefully planned out to emphasize China's ways of erasing
individualism. Weiwei's installments focus on individualism. In the “Sunflower Seed”
presentation, Weiwei sought the services of professionals who crafted 100 million ceramic
sunflower seeds (Steinfeld 16. All the seeds were handmade and revealed the definitive
technique of Chinese pottery. The relationship between the massive installation and his love for
individuality represents the Chinese society that he grew up from. While the Chinese government
championed for the eradication of the ancient culture, Ai and other artists suffered during the
cultural reconstruction. During the cultural revolution, architectures were ruined, ancient scrolls
burned, and antiques smashed (Steinfeld 16. Therefore, Weiwei resorted to creating art that
symbolized an outcry of his emotions.

Figure 1.0. Ai Weiwei. “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn.” 1995. Artnet.com. Web.10 August.
2019.
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), Surveillance Camera (2010), and Straight (2008)
are among the most important artworks created by Weiwei. Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn is an
early artwork by Weiwei which exhibits an act of conceptual brilliance and need to create a
controversy (Becker 113). In his parent’s home in Beijing, Weiwei broke a valuable antique

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ceremonial urn. Not only did the 2000-year-old flower vase have significant worth but had both
cultural and symbolic value (Becker 120). The breaking of the antique vase created a sharp
contradiction among antique dealers who termed Weiwei’s artwork as an act of desperation. He
responded to the criticism by stating that Mao Zedong used to advise Chinese nationals that they
can only create a different world if they destroy the previous one (Becker 126). The dropping of
the urn embodies the cultural destruction based on the expurgation of cultural reminiscence in an
anti-elite society that prevented information access.
This art can be analyzed through formalism and iconographic methodologies of analysis
since it is an example of Weiwei's de-contextualizing ancient objects created in the iconoclastic
phase. The dropping of the antique vase is the detailed documentation of destruction that occurs
in a split second. It is an illustration of Newton's three laws of motion. When We...


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Really great stuff, couldn't ask for more.

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