Donation of "Marx's Mustache" to Establish ACC Cai Fellowship

The eminent Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang has generously donated one of his large-scale gunpowder drawings: “Marx’s Mustache” to the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) for a fundraising auction to support ACC’s work in cultural exchange and its next generation of grantees. As a 1995 ACC fellowship recipient, Cai and ACC have sustained a mutually supportive relationship over the years through a shared belief in the endless possibilities that can emerge when artists, thinkers, and world-changers from different cultures meet.

His ACC fellowship provided him with year-long International Studio Program residency at PS1 in New York where he developed a number of projects for which he is known today, such as “The Century with Mushroom Clouds: Project for the 20th Century”. ACC facilitated this ambitious work by gaining him access to the Nevada Atomic Test Site which started off the acclaimed series with an actual bang. Now a celebrated artist worldwide, Cai is giving back to ACC not only to provide the same opportunity that he was offered to a new generation of emerging artists, but also to inspire other established ACC grantees to do the same.

Cai’s work was auctioned in Sotheby’s recent October sales in Hong Kong, marking the second collaboration between Sotheby’s and ACC. The ACC Cai Fellowship Program has been established with proceeds from the sale and will support two artists annually for cultural exchange between the U.S. and Asia. Its inaugural recipient is Dai Wei, a gifted young new media artist from the Shanghai Theatre Academy who will be travelling to New York to research new developments in his field (see pg. 14 for details).

Through supporting cultural exchange for future ACC grantees, Cai joins with ACC in continuing a unique vision for cultural exchange in the arts. In his own words:

“What I am aiming at is to study the essence of Eastern and Western cultures in the past, deal with various problems found in this planetary era, and endeavor to create a new civilization towards the future."