When the art is the attacker, not the attacked

Glasstire has a nice compact essay on art exhibits that intentionally destroy or damage the exhibition space. If for no other reason, read it to get down to "An artist with a sledgehammer wakes you up."

Art attack!

A man with a history of crimes--and, sadly, a history of mental illness--seems to have deliberately destroyed a dale Chihuly glass sculpture in Washington.

As always, let me know if you hear of any art attacks--I'm fascinated.

People keep vandalizing Kapoor's sculpture at Versailles

Anish Kapoor's controversial sculpture at Versailles has been vandalized for the second time in six months.

Want to punch a Monet?

Last week a man was sentenced to six years in jail for punching a Monet painting. Punching. Here are two responses: a video game that lets you punch the painting (it even shows you the dollar amount of the damage!) and a calling out from The Toast. Enjoy!

"Colonized by Christians and hipster shoes"

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Does the vandalism/repurposing of Prada Marfa count as an "art attack"? Not in my mind, though differentiating this attack/project from the Menil attack/project relies on some subtle distinctions.

It turns out that the vandal/artist has left a manifesto and made comments about the attack on Prada Marfa. I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense, but it does have at least one wonderful phrase that I'll be repeating a lot: "they have been colonized by Christians and hipster shoes."

What Uriel Landeros, Maximo Caminero, and 927 1977 have in common is that they're all younger, "local" artists attacking the works of older (or deader in the case of Picasso), "international" artists. Is this going to be a trend? Is this already a trend? Is there art-historical precedent for artists physically attacking others' art?

Follow-up on Picasso attack

The Houston artist vandal who spray-painted a work by Picasso at the Menil Collection was sentenced to two years in prison. He's already served five months, and expects to get parole soon and go back to UH to finish his degree. Put in context of college antics and not art or vandalism, this is actually pretty good.
  "Duuuude, I went to Florida and got so wasted! What did you do?"
  "I made a criminal and misguided artistic statement that resulted in damage to a Picasso. I was in the national news. I then fled to Mexico, turned myself in through international diplomacy, and sat in jail for a bit before getting a BA. That's what I did."

Another art attack

Sunday a man tagged one of Rothko's Seagram Murals at the Tate in London. The man posted a picture of his work online, and claims that he is making some sort of a statement about living art and making new works. He compares himself to Marcel Duchamp.

Note to the vandal: Duchamp marked up a postcard of the Mona Lisa, not the freakin' Mona Lisa. "Re-appropriation" goes hand in hand with reproduction, for better or worse. Duchamp taught us this. You're a moron.

And a personal note: my "bucket list" currently has only one item--to go to London and see the Seagram Murals.

Oops!

"Cleaning woman in Germany damages $1.1 million sculpture by scrubbing off 'rain puddle'"

Some art gets attacked, other art gets over-cleaned. Maybe there's some karmic balance? Maybe?

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Woman Attacks Another Painting!!

Just to be clear: this is the same woman. She has now attacked two works at the National Gallery in under a year. I hope the security guards all get a photo of her to watch out in the future.

Iconoclasm

I thought this would be another fluff piece on people who vandalize art. It's definitely about vandalism, but not quite as fluffy. It goes well with today's talk about iconoclasm.

Note: for the contemporary artists/vandals, ART stands as the religion that the art pieces violate. How meta-fun!

In case Tim and Eric are still following violence against art

A Russian woman threw a cup at Mona Lisa. This article includes the obligatory list of other attacks. She (the Russian attacker, not Mona Lisa) was apparently upset at being denied French citizenship. This episode surely won't help her appeal.