Gareth Harris, Ai Weiwei faced vote about his Royal Academy of Arts, London membership after Gaza tweet, The Art Newspaper, 10 February 2026
After discussions, the institution voted to retain the artist as an Academician.
The Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei says he faced a vote of no confidence by the Academicians at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in London after posting a controversial tweet about the war in Palestine.
In late 2023 Ai posted a tweet relating to the Israel-Hamas conflict which he later deleted. Lisson Gallery in London, which represents the artist, subsequently postponed a show of the artist’s works. The tweet began: “The sense of guilt around the persecution of the Jewish people has been, at times, transferred to offset the Arab world.”
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