Table with Two Legs

2004

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Using traditional woodwork techniques, Ai reconfigures pieces of furniture in ways that render them inoperative. This visually playful work questions the way in which modernization has made China’s past inaccessible and whether, in seeking to perpetuate tradition by adapting inherited forms, one instead distorts it irrevocably.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

References

Title: Table with Two Legs
Artist: Ai Weiwei (Chinese, born Beijing, 1957)
Date: 2004
Culture: China
Medium: Wood
Dimensions: 51 1/8 × 44 1/8 × 39 3/8 in. (129.9 × 112.1 × 100 cm)
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Lent by a private collection, New York
Curatorial Department: Asian Art