By Reed V. Horth, for Robin Rile Fine Art
On February 16, 2014, Miami Artist Maximo Caminero casually walked into the brand-new Pérez Art Museum Miami, picked up a $1M vase by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, and smashed it to the ground in an apparent protest.
What is it with artists destroying other people’s work these days?
Mr. Caminero told Michael E. Miller, of The Miami New Times, “I did it for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here,” he says. “They have spent so many millions now on international artists. It’s the same political situation over and over again. I’ve been here for 30 years and it’s always the same.” Apparently forgetting that this is a MUSEUM and not a gallery, he smashed the vase in a fit jealousy, right?
Perhaps it is more than that, as this is not the first time an “artist” has attempted to destroy art. More often than not, we find it is an attempt at self-aggrandized publicity-seeking rather than the flowery diatribes about challenging norms and being original. Rather than self-reflection at improving one’s own output, this type of “artist” seeks to fast-track their way to fame any way possible.
Mentally-deranged German serial vandal Hans-Joachim Bohlmann (1937-2009) damaged more than 50 paintings, worth a combined EURO 138M between 1977 and 2006. Using his preferred medium of sprayable sulfuric acid, he destroyed irreplaceable works from Rubens, Durer, Rembrandt and others before receiving the rather paltry sentence of three years in prison.
In 1974, a young New York artist named Tony Shafrazi spray painted “KILL LIES ALL” across Pablo Picasso’s seminal depiction of war “Guernica”, while it was touring the United States just shortly after the death of the artist. When confronted immediately afterward, he cursed and simply claimed, “I’m an Artist”. Later, Shafrazi lyrically posited that he was protesting the Vietnam war and “[I] wanted to bring the art [Guernica] absolutely up to date, to retrieve it from art history and give it life. Maybe that’s why the Guernica action remains so difficult to deal with. I tried to trespass beyond that invisible barrier that no one is allowed to cross; I wanted to dwell within the act of the painting’s creation, get involved with the making of the work, put my hand within it and by that act encourage the individual viewer to challenge it, deal with it and thus see it in its dynamic raw state as it was being made, not as a piece of history.” While perhaps poetic statement about the evils of war, it is more likely an act of self-promotion, one which received only a paltry charge of criminal mischief and 6 months probation. MOMA, where the work was housed was hoping to keep the story quiet so they did not pursue further remedy. They simply cleaned the painting at their own expense and stated that the work was “undamaged”. Shafrazi went on to become one of New York’s most prominent dealers of modern art. [2]
Russian performance artist Alexander Brener (b. 1957) has defaced several works on public display, including defecating in front of a Vincent Van Gogh painting and defacing Kazimir Malevich’s “Suprematisme”, on which he expounded during his court case, “The cross is a symbol of suffering, the dollar sign a symbol of trade and merchandise. On humanitarian grounds are the ideas of Jesus Christ of higher significance than those of the money. What I did was not against the painting. I view my act as a dialogue with Malevich.” He received only 5 months in prison.
Uriel Landeros, a 22-year-old artist studying at the University of Houston was caught spray-painting a stencil of a bullfighter and the work “conquista” (Conquered) on another Picasso, “Woman in a Red Armchair” at Houston’s Menil Collection. After being captured on a cell-phone camera, Landeros fled to Mexico where he was promptly caught and returned to the US to face charges of criminal mischief and felony graffiti. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison. Landeros posted photos of the defaced Picasso on his Facebook page with the artistically phased, “I have Picasso’s soul in my hand, ‘la bestia se conquista’(The Beast is Conquered)…. The revolutionary artist does not create art that can easily become a commodity; his [sic] transgresses the boundaries of political mediocrity…. My intention is to give a voice to all those who go unheard of, all those people who get pushed around by their goverment [sic], all those people of the OCCUPY MOVEMENT who protest the streets and the goverment ignores,” Landeros wrote on Facebook. “REMEMBER, when the people fear their goverment that is tyranny, when the goverment fears the people that is freedom. We are legion, We do not forgive, We do not forget, expect us.” [3]
In each case, fancy-worded artifice still sounds like B.S. from a failed artist eager to do anything to be famous.
Proving we are suckers for self-promotional dribble… Galleries are lining up to be the first to host an exhibit of Uriel Landeros’ work once his legal troubles are behind him. It only remains to be seen, who will be the first to sign up for a Caminero show?
And I thought artists were supposed to be original.
[1] http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2014/02/miami_artist_maximo_caminero_s.php
[2] http://artanonymous.blogspot.com/2011/07/art-of-knowing-when-not-to-do-something.html
[3] http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/10/nation/la-na-nn-graffiti-picasso-20130110
UPDATE: VIDEO $1 million Ai Weiwei Vase vase broken in Miami museum
UPDATE: Statement from Ai Weiwei to Miami New Times, “”I’m O.K. with it, if a work is destroyed,” he says. “A work is a work. It’s a physical thing. What can you do? It’s already over.”
Reed V. Horth, is the president, curator and writer for ROBIN RILE FINE ART in Miami, FL. He has been a private dealer, gallerist and blogger since 1996, specializing in 20th century and contemporary masters. www.robinrile.com
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