WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Cai Guo-Qiang

Cai Guo-Qiang

Chinese, 1957

WA-00031137

Installation ArtContemporary

Representation

None documented

Institutional Exhibitions

Works in Collection

Assets Indexed

Authority-backed Facts

Publications Referenced

80%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Influence Graph

No influence edges encoded yet.

Authority Records (3)

WikidataQ930462 ULAN500115650

MoMA

Field Verification (3 fields)

3 cross-verified · 0 single-source

BiographyMoMA· 93%✓
Birth yearArtsy· 85%✓
NationalityArtsy· 85%✓

Source Registry (2)

White-Cubehttps://whitecube.com/artists
Tier 3 · Scraped/inferred100%
MoMA bulk 2026-05-04https://www.moma.org/artists/8073
Tier 1 · Institutional92%

About

Why this artist matters now

Cai Guo-Qiang is a Chinese artist born in 1957 known for large-scale installations and performances that employ gunpowder, explosives, and pyrotechnics as primary materials. His work engages with ideas of destruction, transformation, and the sublime through carefully orchestrated detonations that leave charred marks on paper, walls, and architectural surfaces. Operating across drawing, sculpture, and ephemeral event-based practice, he treats explosive force as both medium and metaphor for historical rupture and cultural collision.

Source: White Cube · Trust score: 100% · Updated 25d ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

Installation Art

Medium

—

Related Artists

12 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Modern ArtNew York Tate

Canonical record

Artworks (10)

Nontransparent Monument (Stele 4)

2006 · One from a series of five ink rubbings

composition (irreg.): 61 13/16 x 51 3/16" (157 x 130 cm); sheet (irreg.): 69 5/16 x 51 9/16" (176 x 131 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Nontransparent Monument (Stele 6)

2006 · One from a series of five ink rubbings

composition (irreg.): 83 1/4 × 46 5/8" (211.5 × 118.5 cm); sheet (irreg.): 88 7/8 × 51 3/16" (225.7 × 130 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Nontransparent Monument (Stele 1)

2006 · One from a series of five ink rubbings

composition (irreg.): 90 3/16 x 49 5/8" (229 x 126 cm); sheet (irreg.): 96 1/16 x 51 3/16" (244 x 130 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Nontransparent Monument (Stele 3)

2006 · One from a series of five ink rubbings

composition (irreg.): 73 1/4 x 49 3/16" (186 x 125 cm); sheet (irreg.): 76 15/16 x 51 3/16" (195.5 x 130 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Nontransparent Monument (Stele 7)

2006 · One from a series of five ink rubbings

composition (irreg.): 67 5/16 x 48 13/16" (171 x 124 cm); sheet (irreg.): 76 3/8 x 51 3/16" (194 x 130 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Nontransparent Monument

2006 · Series of five ink rubbings

(see child records)

Museum of Modern Art

Mr Ye Who Loves Dragon

2003 · Gunpowder on paper

support: 4000 x 6000 mm

Tate

Drawing for Transient Rainbow

2003 · Gunpowder on two sheets of paper

179 x 159 1/2" (454.7 x 405.1 cm) (overall)

Museum of Modern Art

Borrowing Your Enemy's Arrows

1998 · Wood boat, canvas sail, arrows, metal, rope, Chinese flag, and electric fan

Boat approximately 60" x 23' 7" x 7' 6" (152.4 x 720 x 230 cm), each arrow approximately 24" (62 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

WattsOS

Bigfoot’s Footprints: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 6

1991 · Eight-panel folding screen; gunpowder and ink on paper

78 3/4 in. × 20 ft. 11 15/16 in. (200 × 640 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

View all 10 artworks →

Artwork sources (3)

10 published of 18 catalogued · 17 with image

MoMA
8 publishedof 16 catalogued16 img
The Met
1 published
Tate
1 published1 img

Per-Artwork Provenance Chains (top 1)

1 entries · 1 sources

Mr Ye Who Loves Dragon
2003 · Tate · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number

Record

Images

Artsy

Art Institute of Chicago

Relationships

Movements2

Installation Art Contemporary

Collections4

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Modern Art Tate

Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

In collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

In collection

Tate

Record

Exhibitions and timeline

No exhibitions or timeline entries yet