As artists, most of us likely think of the intentional vandalism of Art as one of the most egregious of offenses. There are dozens of famous acts of Art Vandalism.

On 10 March 1914, militant suffragette Mary Richardson walked into the National Gallery of London and attacked Diego Velázquez’s painting Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver.

Her action was supposedly taken in response to the arrest of fellow suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. Richardson left seven slashes on the painting, all of which have been successfully repaired. Richardson later stated: “I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs. Pankhurst… and the way men visitors gaped at it all day long”. Somehow I doubt her action was a successful method of gaining support for her cause.

Both Michelangelo’s David and the Pieta have been targets of vandalism, and the Mona Lisa has been targeted several times.

One of the worst attacks was made upon Rembrandt’s Danaë…

… which was attacked with both acid and a knife. Restoration took over 10 years.

Rodin’s Thinker, located outside the Cleveland Museum of Art, was targeted in protest of the escalation of the Vietnam War.

I’m friends with an older artist who claims he knows who the bomber was… but I really don’t want to know more.

This personal connection brings me to the point of this post. AllisonR (I believe) has spoken of having had one of her paintings vandalized (a male nude, I believe?). It seems that paintings and sculptures of figures… and especially nudes… seem to be the most common targets of vandals. Perhaps
… on one level… it is power or culture that the figure represents (or is imagined as representing). At the same time, considering how often it is the nude that is the target, you’ve got to wonder whether there is the sexual element behind a lot of vandalism.

So… beside Allison… is there anyone else who has had their work vandalized? One of my paintings was recently the target of vandalism… and like many of the Art Vandalism cited on Wikipedia and other sites, there was a degree of mental illness behind the attack. One of my studio mates has recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He ignores his doctor’s orders not making frequent visits and refusing to take most of his medication. Unfortunately, one of the symptoms of Parkinson’s is dementia. Over the past month, he has engaged in a personal “war” with our neighbors… including a church headed by the nicest minister. He has repeatedly called the police… and then I found one of my older paintings (c. 2014) vandalized:

Above is the painting in a photograph from some several years ago. For the last couple of years, it has hung beneath another painting… wholly inaccessible to any vandalism. This past July I moved a number of paintings around and once again this painting (“Temptation”) saw the light of day. In October, I found the work had been vandalized:

Not only was the painting scrawled on with what appears to have been a pencil, but it was also scratched with what looks like a sharp metal object… like a screw… which tore the paper beneath the lips.

As a result, I pulled all of my paintings out of the studio and took them home. My other studio mate has already announced that he is leaving… largely because of our partner’s erratic behavior. The other day I spent my time in the studio repairing the painting. The torn area required 4 or 5 layers of acrylic and then sanding, prior to being redrawn. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to match the way I had roughly scumbled the flesh-tone pastels over the blues and reds… but luckily, the damage largely avoided these areas. The painting is now restored…

Now that this painting is out, I plan on making a few changes… or additions… most importantly, a choker around the neck to emphasize the roundness of the neck.

Unfortunately, this may be one of my few large paintings for a while as I will be looking for a new studio space. Even if I were certain that my studio partner could not damage another painting… and I COULD wall off the space with just an additional 8 or 10 feet of wall and add a door with a lock… I still am facing the fact that my partner’s disease will keep progressing and it is only a matter of time before he can no longer come in and ends up hospitalized.

Anyway… anybody else ever have your artwork vandalized?