Ai Weiwei: Artist and Provocateur

Featured Speaker: Wendy Evans, M.A.

Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, sculptor, architect, designer, photographer, video maker, and activist. He uses normal art supplies like clay and paint but also unconventional materials like antique Chinese urns, Lego, backpacks, and medical face masks. Ai Weiwei’s art is the way he conducts his provocative activism. This lecture will explore the influence of Marcel Duchamp on Ai Weiwei and the role the persecution of his famous poet father Ai Qing played in Ai Weiwei’s career path.

Presenter Biography

Wendy Evans is an art historian with advanced degrees from Oxford University and Wayne State University. She taught art history at Wayne State, the College for Creative Studies, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. She has a passion for art that she loves to share with groups like Osher

Coordinator: Susan Schreiber