Weiwei Donates Two Works to Florence

A week after his well-attended retrospective in Palazzo Strozzi closed, Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has decided to make a gift of two of the exhibits that will remain in the city of the Renaissance.

Both are created in LEGO; one, a portrait of Filippo Strozzi, given to Palazzo Strozzi, is part of a series of portraits of political dissidents down the ages, echoing the link between tradition and modernity – a recurring theme in Weiwei’s work.  The other is a self-portrait of the artist, again in LEGO, will go to the Uffizi Gallery.  (poppy jackson)

To see a photo gallery of the works, visit Florence’s La Repubblica news site.