@CartoonCreatureLover's post on Artfol
(any)
Have you guys heard about the climate activists that apparently destroyed Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting with Heinz Tomato Soup?
Supposedly, the activist group “Just Stop Oil” has done multiple questionable things in the past for “activism,” one of which was supposedly blocking ambulances or something from reaching hospitals? I’m very likely missing some details & context regarding the ambulance one, so take that one with a grain of salt please!
Additionally, the two who vandalized the painting were arrested, for those wondering!
Their message looks to have been something sorta like, “What’s more valuable; a painting or human lives?”
On one hand, the message makes sense & now it’s getting a bunch of coverage. On the other hand, people are pointing out that they didn’t have to commit vandalism of a precious painting to get their point across, & supposedly has a negative history of doing “not actually helpful things” for climate activism.
So what do you guys think? Was this somehow a good idea to be heard, or was this just another example that’ll make something as serious as taking care of our planet & each other look like a joke? And will restorationists be able to fix the beloved painting of its tomatoey-attack?
(Additionally, was the painting actually directly hit with the soup? I’m having trouble finding if it actually had a glass case over it, I don’t it was actually protected from the attack like the Mona Lisa was a few months ago from the whipped cream; which was also a climate-activism related stunt.)Oct 14, 2022
Supposedly, the activist group “Just Stop Oil” has done multiple questionable things in the past for “activism,” one of which was supposedly blocking ambulances or something from reaching hospitals? I’m very likely missing some details & context regarding the ambulance one, so take that one with a grain of salt please!
Additionally, the two who vandalized the painting were arrested, for those wondering!
Their message looks to have been something sorta like, “What’s more valuable; a painting or human lives?”
On one hand, the message makes sense & now it’s getting a bunch of coverage. On the other hand, people are pointing out that they didn’t have to commit vandalism of a precious painting to get their point across, & supposedly has a negative history of doing “not actually helpful things” for climate activism.
So what do you guys think? Was this somehow a good idea to be heard, or was this just another example that’ll make something as serious as taking care of our planet & each other look like a joke? And will restorationists be able to fix the beloved painting of its tomatoey-attack?
(Additionally, was the painting actually directly hit with the soup? I’m having trouble finding if it actually had a glass case over it, I don’t it was actually protected from the attack like the Mona Lisa was a few months ago from the whipped cream; which was also a climate-activism related stunt.)Oct 14, 2022
#question
#painting
#sunflowers
#juststopoil
#vangogh
Comments
I don’t know if it was the same guys, but in London there was a protest some time ago where they blocked the roads and wouldn’t let people through (can’t remember if it included ambulances) I know there was one guy tho who was very angry cuz his father was in a hospital dying and he didn’t get to say goodbye because of the blockage.
•
•I think that the way that they are protesting isn't helpful because everyone is going to focus in the vandalism than in the actual message, like what we are doing here, instead of arguing in the important thing that is the climate change, we are arguing of vandalism
•
I saw it on the news yesterday don’t worry, the painting was a copy and also protected by a crystal frame so it wasn’t really damaged luckily.
However I’m still very confused about it like, What the painting or the artist did to you or has to do with?
However I’m still very confused about it like, What the painting or the artist did to you or has to do with?
•
As far as I’ve seen this should have happened in the National Gallery in London. Putting glass in front of paintings isn’t all that common there if I remember the infos from their videos correctly. Glass tends to be put in place if it happens relatively often that people try to touch a painting (like that one with the lady with a fly on her headdress, one of the paintings of the cathedral of Rouen by Monet in Cardiff, or the Mona Lisa). Other than that most paintings in museums (those I’ve been to and what I’ve seen from videos) make do with a small rope barrier to keep people a tad away but otherwise free to look at every brush stroke if they so choose.
Really nice as a visitor ^u^
(Being able to be a few inches away from a Monet is cool)
As for the sunflower painting …
well it’s part of a series, so there are a couple of them. There are also some videos about them on the national gallery’s YouTube channel
-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFGVaMVyAoU&list=PLvb2y26xK6Y4gUwGxksfWX5lb3SfkIEJu
(I hope this works, that one should take anyone interested to the playlist with all of them)
And they also have a really nice one on what I think might be the now damaged one before it was damaged + some general Van Gogh stuff
-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV4YGUAHPJU
As for the damage … most paintings in museums do have a varnish on them as a finish so the tomato soup shouldn’t have reached the paint and the varnish is (with effort and time on the conservators part) replaceable as far as I know. Just speculation though, as I am not an expert.
Feeling a little bad for the conservator who needs to clean this up. Plus that’s time away from other conservation projects, cleaning, or stabilizing other objects.
Really nice as a visitor ^u^
(Being able to be a few inches away from a Monet is cool)
As for the sunflower painting …
well it’s part of a series, so there are a couple of them. There are also some videos about them on the national gallery’s YouTube channel
-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFGVaMVyAoU&list=PLvb2y26xK6Y4gUwGxksfWX5lb3SfkIEJu
(I hope this works, that one should take anyone interested to the playlist with all of them)
And they also have a really nice one on what I think might be the now damaged one before it was damaged + some general Van Gogh stuff
-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV4YGUAHPJU
As for the damage … most paintings in museums do have a varnish on them as a finish so the tomato soup shouldn’t have reached the paint and the varnish is (with effort and time on the conservators part) replaceable as far as I know. Just speculation though, as I am not an expert.
Feeling a little bad for the conservator who needs to clean this up. Plus that’s time away from other conservation projects, cleaning, or stabilizing other objects.
•
That's what I call "disturbing the peace", and it's not a productive way to protest.
•
There are better ways to give attention to the topic of climate change without looking irrational.
You can for example recommend banks that doesn't fund oil drilling instead of ruining someone's property.
By doing this, they have actually made a joke out of activists. People will actually see them as accurate representation of activists and its sad.
You can for example recommend banks that doesn't fund oil drilling instead of ruining someone's property.
By doing this, they have actually made a joke out of activists. People will actually see them as accurate representation of activists and its sad.
•
