Chinese Dissident Named World's Most Powerful Artist

Beijing slams ArtReview for making its judgement out of 'political bias.'

Ai Weiwei, the famed Chinese artist who was detained by authorities for 81 days earlier this year, has been declared the world's "most powerful art figure" by the vaunted ArtReview magazine. Ai's placement atop the magazine's "Power 100" list has drawn the ire of the Chinese government, which says Ai's ranking was done solely out of "political bias" and with no regard to his actual artistic ability. The magazine denies that the selection was politically motivated, citing Ai's massive contributions to the art world, such as in designing Beijing's famed Birds Nest Olympic stadium and his much-lauded Sunflower Seeds installation at the Tate Modern in London last year, in which one hundred million porcelain replicas of sunflower seeds were strewn across the floor of a gallery. We've been told it was "very cool." The artist has been very outspoken about oppressive conditions in China and his support of an investigation into the deaths of students in the 2008 Sichhuan earthquake. Ai was arrested on April 3 and held for the next two months at his home for not paying taxes, although many have viewed the arrest as symbolic of the Chinese government's crackdown on artists.