Ai Weiwei often grapples with the consumerist and monetized vision of art, provocatively with his series "Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn" in which he destroys a 2,000-year old jar (background); Colored Vases (2007-2010) is a garish repainting of ancient ceramic shapes in modern neon.
According to What? The Ai Weiwei Retrospective in Washington D.C.
The show takes its name from a 1964 Jasper Johns work and explores the controversial Chinese artist-activist's attempts to make art a way of looking at the world--and challenging its authorities--rather than accumulating artifacts.