Want to Buy Art and Support Human Rights? See Works That Gerhard Richter, Yoko Ono, and Other Artists Created to Benefit Amnesty International

Want to buy artwork by internationally acclaimed artists and
help save the world at the same time? Now you can, thanks to a
partnership between Amnesty International and the arts initiative
Art-19.

The collaboration has yielded “Art 19–Box One,”
a limited-edition set of 10 signed prints by acclaimed artists
including Gerhard Richter and Shirin Neshat. The 100-edition run
goes on sale December 1 for €50,000 (about $55,000)
each—just in time for the
holidays.

Art-19 is an artist-run organization
founded by gallerist and master printer Mike Karstens; Burkhard
Richter, a retired commercial lawyer and art advisor; Bill Shipsey,
the founder of Art for Amnesty; and Jochen M. Wilms, a Berlin-based
art project producer. The name of the group references Article 19
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads in part,
“Everyone has the right to a freedom of opinion and
expression.”

The combination of law experience and
fine-art contacts has brought together an impressive roster of 10
international artists who created original work for the project: In
addition to Neshat and Richter, the lineup includes Ayşe
Erkmen, Shilpa Gupta, Ilya & Emilia
Kabakov, William Kentridge, Yoko Ono, Chiharu
Shiota, Kiki Smith, and Rosemarie Trockel. (Notably, many
of these artists’ works would be difficult to acquire through
traditional channels, as they are so sought-after.)

Karstens has worked with a number of the
participating artists in the past, most notably with German art
star Gerhard Richter to create a series of stained glass windows at the Cologne
Cathedral. 

In a press announcement for Box One, the artists weighed in on
their contributions. “Freedom of expression is naturally dear to my
heart and a fundamental and essential right—especially for
artists,” said Yoko Ono, who has been a member of Amnesty
International for more than two decades. “Please support this
important artistic endeavor.”

Ono’s contribution, A Piece of the Sky, echoes her
longtime fascination the the sky motif as a metaphor for peace and
freedom; in this print, the shape of a puzzle piece is colored with
white clouds against a blue background.

Shirin Neshat, who contributed a photograph from her “The Home
of My Eyes” series, a group of portraits of individuals from her
native Iran inscribed with ink, added: “Being born an Iranian, a
country that has undermined basic human rights particularly since
the Islamic Revolution, I have uncontrollably gravitated toward
making art that is concerned with issues of tyranny, dictatorship,
oppression, and political injustice. Although I don’t consider
myself an activist, I believe my art regardless of its nature, is
an expression of protest, and a cry for humanity.”

The works will be exhibited in a traveling show across four
European cities beginning December 10, Human Rights Day. The are
available for purchase online.

See works from the project along with behind-the-scenes
photos from the printing process, below. The exhibition will be on
view at Collectors Room in Berlin, December 10–January
31, 2020; at Blondeau & Cie in Geneva, December 12–14;
the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague,
December 13, 2019–February 3, 2020; and for one day at Paris’s Grand Palais, on December
14.

The post Want to Buy Art and Support Human Rights? See Works
That Gerhard Richter, Yoko Ono, and Other Artists Created to
Benefit Amnesty International appeared first on artnet
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