Wanted

The Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei is as famous for his art and he is for his provocative stance against the repressive policies of the Chinese government. In the last decade Ai has been the target of numerous government investigations resulting in the destruction of his studio, arrest, and imprisonment. Freed from jail in 2011, the artist remains under close scrutiny by the Chinese authorities, who hold his passport and prohibit his travel abroad. Ai conceived of this poster as an appeal for his freedom. The work closely copies a 1963 exhibition poster by the Surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp, which in turn reproduced an earlier Duchamp print. Ai substituted old mugshot-like photographs of himself and altered the text to make a plea for his passport. The lithograph, conceived as a work to be broadly circulated (with a total edition of 240 works), is both a bold political statement and a savvy artistic appropriation.