Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) Watermelon, 2006 Glazed porcelain 14-7/8 inches (38.0 cm) (diam.) This work is unique Property From an Important London Collection PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the artist. NOTE: This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist. Please note that this piece is in our London office www.ha.com/london and the buyer may be responsible for import tariffs if shipped to the United States. Please familiarize yourself with new tariff requirements as necessary. Watermelon is a hand-sculpted and painted porcelain work, created using the traditional techniques of Jingdezhen—a city often referred to as the "Porcelain Capital of China." With over a thousand years of continuous ceramic production, Jingdezhen has played a central role in the development of Chinese porcelain. Its kilns, once operated under imperial patronage, produced some of the most refined and technically sophisticated wares in Chinese history—prized at court and exchanged as diplomatic gifts that helped shape China’s global cultural legacy. In creating Watermelon, Ai Weiwei draws from this long lineage, engaging deeply with craft while questioning the historical and institutional frameworks that surround it. At first glance, Watermelon appears playful and deceptively simple. The sculpture closely mimics the organic form and surface of a real fruit. Yet its material—porcelain—carries weighty associations with spirituality, luxury, and authority. By rendering an everyday object in such a historically elevated medium, Ai repositions both. The result is a work that functions simultaneously as a display of craftsmanship and a conceptual gesture—one that prompts viewers to reconsider the boundaries between the decorative and the critical. Ai’s relationship to tradition is complex. While he honors and engages with traditional Chinese art forms, he also challenges their role in structures of power and historical memory. This duality is evident in some of his most well-known works, including Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), in which he deliberately smashed a 2,000-year-old relic, and a series of Neolithic vases he coated in bright industrial paint. These acts, while provocative, are also deeply considered meditations on authenticity, authorship, and the mutable nature of cultural value. As Ai has remarked, "We are learning from the past... You have to know it to destroy it." Within this context, Watermelon becomes more than a beautifully executed porcelain object. It embodies a tension between permanence and impermanence, reverence and irreverence, continuity and rupture. By immortalizing a perishable, seasonal fruit in a material known for its durability, Ai invites viewers to reflect on how value is constructed—and how tradition can be both preserved and questioned. It is a work that exists between worlds: one foot in a centuries-old craft, the other firmly planted in contemporary critique. HID12401132022 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice