Andres Serrano (some NSWF images) has made controversial art for decades, with his piece
Piss Christ causing controversy shortly after it was created in 1987. In 1989, the photograph initiated
outrage against the National Endowment for the Arts because of "anti-Christian bigotry". Then the piece was physically attacked
two times in one weekend, when it was first shown in the
National Gallery of Victoria in 1997. In December 2010, the
Collection Lambert museum of contemporary art in Avignon, France opened
a show called "I Believe in Miracles" that includes pieces of minimal art, conceptual art and land art, and includes
Piss Christ. The photograph had been shown in France before without disturbance, and had been shown without incident in Collection Lambert for four months, but
around 1,000 protesters marched to the museum on Saturday, and on Sunday vandals succeeded in attacking the picture, breaking the plexiglass shield and slashing the photograph.
The museum is open again, and the damaged work is still on display.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 19, 2011 -
143 comments
Art Crimes is a fascinating site about the history of vandalism in the fine arts, recently revived by a Frenchwoman who left a
lipstick imprint on a 2 million dollar painting by
Cy Twombly. Other examples include a
British suffragist attacking a Velazquez with a knife, an
installation vandalized by the Israeli ambassador to Sweden,
two Chinese performance artists who urinated into Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, and a
Canadian art student who vomited blue gelatin on a Mondrian. Oddly enough, the artwork that has weathered the most attacks is Rembrandt's
The Night Watch, which has survived two knife attacks (one by an unemployed teacher with a butter knife) and an attack by a mental patient who had a compulsion to fling sulfuric acid at fine artworks. Other art vandalism methods, including glass cutters, hammers, scissors, guns, and ink, are discussed
here.
posted by jonp72
on Jul 26, 2007 -
38 comments
A few months after his first (donated)
statue, "
Drinker", was
kidnapped, London's guerrilla artist
Banksy reveals a new statue, a £22,000 solid bronze prostitute with leather boots and a
thong,
dedicated "to thugs, to thieves, to bullies, to
liars, to the corrupt, the arrogant and the stupid."
posted by shoepal
on Aug 5, 2004 -
25 comments
Israeli ambassador to Sweeden vandalises artwork. This is front page stuff in my part of the world and I truly hope, but doubt, that he will find himself out of work tomorrow. The question is: what was he thinking? Was it intentional? Could he have chosen to interpret the upsetting work of art in another less disturbing way?
posted by FidelDonson
on Jan 17, 2004 -
94 comments
VandalSquad Always fancied yourself as a "Writer" but don't want to get covered in paint or arrested? This download allows you to deface a train wagon to your hearts content and then upload it to a gallery. Not the
real thing but as close as most of us will ever get...
posted by jontyjago
on Mar 28, 2003 -
1 comment
Man Beheads (statue of) Margaret Thatcher. His "sense of 'satirical humour' left him no choice but to carry out the attack" on the £150,000 Maggie as 'artistic expression and [his] right to interact with this broken world.'
Jury fails to convict and a retrial is scheduled. Perhaps there is a
creative solution to replacing the head?
posted by Shane
on Dec 18, 2002 -
17 comments
These Posters were an Artbomb that went off across the street from my apartment last night. The posters were plastered over a bus shelter ad and over several other public objects nearby. I was taken aback, as I had last seen those images hanging in an exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art. San Jose has a fairly bad graffiti/tagging problem, but I'm OK with this type of thing. Apparently, the SJPD are too (quoted from the Mercury News): "The poster-pasting could be considered a violation of municipal statutes on vandalism, but San Jose Police Department spokesman Steve Dickson seemed more amused than concerned. "It's not something that we would get involved in unless someone makes a complaint," Dickson said. "Then we'd ask them to take them down. People have a right to political speech."
In fact, Dickson broke into laughter at a description of the two posters.
"Hey," he said apologetically, "we have a sense of humor like
anyone else."
posted by JDC8
on Oct 30, 2000 -
8 comments
