Ai Weiwei with the word 'FUCK' sunburned onto his chest
Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 2000, part of the Beijing Photographs series, 1993-2003
Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio, © Ai Weiwei)
This spring, the Seattle Art Museum hosts a moveable feast of Ai Weiwei, presenting for the first time the work of one artist across all three locations.
Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei is at the Seattle Art Museum until September 7th. The artist’s first US retrospective in over a decade, it is his largest-ever exhibition in the US features over 130 works created over four decades, from the 1980s to the 2020s.
The Chinese dissident artist and activist’s largest and most ambitious LEGO work to date, Water Lilies (2022), will be on view at the Seattle Asian Art Museum for one year beginning March 19th while a collection of twelve monumental animal heads representing the Chinese zodiac, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (Bronze) (2010), will be installed at Olympic Sculpture Park for a two-year period beginning May 17th.
Foong Ping, exhibition curator and SAM’s Foster Foundation Curator of Chinese Art notes, ‘Presenting Ai Weiwei’s work at all three SAM locations is incredibly ambitious, and we are thrilled and inspired by the challenge.’
She adds, ‘Each of SAM’s locations is uniquely suited to showcase his diverse body of work, which ranges from the intimate to the monumental. Few artists could integrate into our spaces so effortlessly. It’s been a delight and honour to collaborate with Ai in developing this fresh look at his life’s work.’
One journalist asked at a press conference/preview event last week, ‘Why the Seattle Art Museum?’ to which the artist replied, ‘Why not?’
But upon reflection, Seattle with its mix of activism and capitalism (entering the city from the airport road visitors are greeted by a glowing Starbucks logo atop its HQ) and a well-funded cultural scene may be the perfect venue for Ai Weiwei. The city also has a long history of and a growing importance as a centre for Asian art. In fact, its first incarnation in the lovely 1933 Art Deco building that is currently home to the Seattle Asian Art Museum (which opened as such in 1994), was established by founding patrons Richard E. Fuller, and his mother, Mrs. Margaret E. MacTavish Fuller, whose significant collection of Asian Art was part of the permanent collection.