Lecture: Ai Weiwei: Between Mao and Warhol

October 23, midnight

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum 314.935.5490

In this lecture, John J. Curley, associate professor of modern and contemporary art at Wake Forest University, will
discuss the hybridity of Ai Weiwei’s artistic practice. In many of his works, Ai emulates Western exemplars like Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp but infuses these models with techniques learned from communist propaganda during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Ai’s practice thus transforms Duchamp’s and Warhol’s postures of critical ambiguity into clear political statements, allowing his works to be read as both works of contemporary art and social activism.


Free and open to the public. In conjunction with the exhibition Ai Weiwei: Bare Life.