Political art, or political art? Last Sunday, two members of the eco-activist group Last Generation threw mashed potatoes at millstones (1890), by Monet, in the Barberini Museum, Germany. This gesture followed that of Just Stop Oil, whose activists had emptied two cans of tomato soup on The sunflowers (1888), by Van Gogh, nine days earlier, in London. These “political performances” are based on artistic, aesthetic, symbolic and media elements. Specialists and critics take a look at this series of “enoupage”, “enpatatage” and gluing of hands on masterpieces of the history of art.
“This soup on The sunflowers, all this red on this yellow monochrome, it’s visually very beautiful… The image is strong. It’s succeeded”, cannot help appreciating Professor Mélanie Boucher… just before highlighting that as a museologist, she cannot endorse this gesture, nor any one that puts conservation at risk, more or less. of a work of art.
Mme Boucher is a specialist in new uses for museum collections and… the use of food in art. The duty asked his opinion. Could the series of militant interventions we are witnessing these days be considered a series of artistic performances?
Because it is indeed a series that it is: on October 9, two members of Extinction Rebellion stuck one of their hands to the window of Massacre in Korea (1951), by Picasso, in Melbourne. Ditto in July, in Italy: the window of the Spring (XVe century), by Botticelli, was entitled to the imprints of members of Ultima Generazione. The National Gallery, which has The sunflowerssaw militants sticking very close to The hay cart (1821) by Constable.
Dear masterpieces
Same soup this summer for Peach trees in bloom (1889), by Van Gogh, at the Courtauld Gallery in London, and for a landscape by McCulloch at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. In May, The Mona Lisa (early 16the), at the Louvre, was pie-crusted: this gesture, no group has claimed it. None of the works were damaged.
So why target these masterpieces, and the museums? “Despite appearances, many of the world’s great museums have in fact once again become the preserve of very wealthy people, who see them as a theater for their entertainment, their good pleasure, their brand image and their unbridled desire for speculation, which passes also through art”, analyzes Nicolas Mavrikakis, critic at the To have to.
This soup on “The Sunflowers”, all this red on this monochrome yellow, it’s visually very beautiful… The image is strong. It succeeded.
“I understand those people who are fed up that museums are places of wealth preservation for the rich rather than discussion of important social issues, including ecological issues,” continues Mr. Mavrikakis, author of The fear of the image (Nota Bene). “Museums,” recalls Yves Bergeron, holder of the Chair in Museum Governance and Cultural Law at UQAM, “have become mass media highly valued by cultural elites and governments, since they are useful in diplomatic relations abroad. »
Museums also retain their past as colonial institutions, adds Mélanie Boucher. And these are places used to interventions. Whether they are authorized or not, they have been part of what artists say since the 1970s. And the limit between interventions, performance and controlled vandalism is not always clear (see box).
It’s the intention that counts
All the works targeted by the activists are considered masterpieces and were painted by “artists belonging to the very limited circle of those who represent the art market”, underlines Mme Butcher. The sunflowers of Van Gogh, for example, with its value estimated at 84 million dollars, “is no longer even accessible to museums for purchase, as the painter’s rating is now high”.
And almost everyone knows Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso… “The impact [médiatique] would not have been the same if the activists had chosen a painting by Caravaggio, while the National Gallery is also exhibiting one,” underlines the museologist. Several of the targeted paintings were also, at the time of their creation, symbols of modern society and progress.
Are these militant gestures part of performance, then? No, slice Mélanie Boucher. “To find out if it is an artistic gesture, we look at whether there is a claim, an intention, an artistic approach. There is nothing at this level. The visual, [même s’il est très efficace], is not enough to talk about an artistic approach. She sighs: “It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last that we will vandalize a museum to get media attention…”