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AN ARTIST

SPEAKS OUT

Ai Weiwei

(1957– )

here are many ways to protest. Some people
speak up. Some people use social media.
TSome write books and articles. And some, like TAKE ACTION
Ai Weiwei, create art. Ai has combined his eye-catching
art with powerful words to stand up to the Chinese ARTISTS TAKE A STAND

government’s repression of free speech and its disre- In 1937 Pablo Picasso created the
gard for human rights. painting Guernica after the bombing
Some people have described him as “the most of a small town in Spain that killed
hundreds of innocent people, mostly
dangerous artist in the world.” And if dangerous means women and children. Other artists,
an artist who is not afraid to speak against a regime such as Jacob Lawrence, Gordon
that tries to silence people who disagree with its poli- Parks, Banksy, Dorothea Lange and
cies, then Ai fits the bill. Norman Rockwell, have portrayed
As the son of Ai Qing, a prominent Chinese poet who unfairness, injustice and suffering
through powerful paintings and
was called an “enemy of the people” for his writing and photographs.

exiled with his family to labor camps in remote parts of
China, Ai Weiwei understood how difficult and impor-
tant it is to stand up to a tyrannical regime.

Left: Artist and human rights advocate Ai Weiwei holds up porcelain
sunflower seeds—part of his art exhibition. Art is this artist’s way of
pointing out injustice in his native China and around the world.

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