Phil Brown

Phil Brown - Art Column

AI WEI WEI MEETS ANDY WARHOL

They never met in life but Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei revered Andy Warhol and is thrilled to be exhibiting with him in Melbourne, writes Phil Brown

They look like anyones holiday snaps at first glance but they were taken by Ai Wei Wei so expect the unexpected. After all, the dissident Chinese artist likes to thumb his nose at authority, and give it the finger too, apparently. Theres a whole wall at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbournes NGV International building dedicated to his holiday snaps with a difference from his Study of Perspective series, created between 1995 and 2011.

In each photo we see an iconic structure, often a symbol of authority, snapped by the artist with a defiant finger raised in front of the camera. He flips the bird in front of the White House, in Tiananmen Square, even the Sydney Opera House gets the treatment.

Its just one of the special moments in the extraordinary exhibition Andy Warhol/Ai Wei Wei which is on until April 24 before decamping for The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, where it will be showing from June until August. Probably easier to catch it in Melbourne though, right?

NGV director Tony Ellwood has form when it comes to shows of Andy Warhols work. He dazzled Queensland with the exhibition Andy Warhol at Brisbanes Gallery of Modern Art in 2007-2008, when he was director there, but obviously didnt want to just replicate that in Melbourne.

So he came up with an exhibition that is one of the best reasons to visit the Victorian capital this summer.

Its an unusual coupling at first glance but explores a legitimate connection between the two artists. In Melbourne for the shows opening Ai Wei Wei explained he has always been a big fan of Andy Warhol.

When I moved from China to live in New York in 1981 he was the artist I was most attracted to, Ai Wei Wei says. His personality, the way he looked at things, the way he approached his art had a big impact on me.

Ai Wei Wei, the son of poet Ai Qing, who faced internal exile during the Cultural Revolution, went to New York to escape scrutiny by the authorities in China.

He fell in with artists and writers in New York, including Allen Ginsberg. His first English-language book was, appropriately, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) and though there were occasions when he could have met Warhol it never happened.

I only ever saw him from afar, Ai Wei Wei recalls.

He returned to China and slowly developed an international reputation that peaked when he helped design the famous Birds Nest stadium for Beijing Olympics in 2008. He was outspoken at the time over conditions in China and since then has been imprisoned and in recent years was without a passport and unable to travel outside China.

He demonstrates his iconoclasm in famous works such as his 1995 performance Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, which you will see in this show.

He and Warhol had a love of flowers and there is a gallery space dedicated to that subject. It includes a bicycle against a wall with flowers in its basket. With his studio under surveillance Ai Wei Wei propped a bike outside daily, with fresh flowers in its basket so the secret police would have something nice to film.

His rebellious nature is tinged with fun and a populism which, no doubt, is partly a nod to Warhol. Their pairing seems more and more appropriate as you wander through this amazing show. The Warhol content is familiar celebrity prints, the odd can of soup, and other well known strands.

Some critics have been dismissive of Warhols commercialism but in this show Ai Wei Wei is happy to see the late Warhol up where he belongs. The show offers some deliciously indulgent experiences too. I spent half an hour glued to grainy footage of The Velvet Underground and Nico jamming at The Factory in New York. Respect.

Nearby there are videos of Ai Wei Wei and friends and there is an interactive kids section focusing on cats. Ai Wei Wei loves moggies. Who knew?

Hes a global art superstar and the Melbourne show is a coup and it also features one of his most famous works, Forever Bicycles, a monumental installation of connected bicycle wheels, the first thing you will see.

Make the most of your visit and take in Lurid Beauty: Australian Art and Its Echoes, which is on nearby at the The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square until January 31.

This is fascinating journey through a genre that has informed Australian art more than we really understood, until now.

Next year the NGV has more treats in store including Whistlers Mother, March 26-June 19, presenting a show based on the famous Portrait of the artists Mother, painted in 1871 by master artist James McNeill Whistler. The iconic work will be exhibited exclusively at the NGV International on loan from the Musee dOrsay, Paris.

That will be followed by Degas: A New Vision, June 24-September 18, the first major international retrospective of Edgar Degass work in decades.

Just another reason to visit the NGV next year. But right now, its all Andy Warhol and Ai Wei Wei. Excuse the finger.

COURIERMAIL.COM.AU SATURDAY DECEMBER 26 2015