{"id":5585,"date":"2010-05-24T06:56:33","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T10:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=5585"},"modified":"2010-05-24T06:56:33","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T10:56:33","slug":"art-vandalism-as-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/art-vandalism-as-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Art vandalism as art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In a high culture that no longer believes in beauty or meaning, art becomes reduced to interesting gestures.\u00a0 Consider this \u201cwork,\u201d as described by art critic Blake Gopnik:<\/p>\n

On Saturday evening, in the back room at Postmasters Gallery in Chelsea, veteran dealer Magdalena Sawon gave me an early glimpse of a work called \u201cStolen Pieces,\u201d which she said has never been exhibited. Made by a young Italian couple, Eva and Franco Mattes, but kept secret since the mid-90s, it consists of a display case full of tiny chips from significant works of art, snatched or snapped off by the duo over a two-year crime spree. The artists did the deeds between July 28, 1995, and July 29, 1997, in museums all around the world.<\/p>\n

The loot includes a manufacturer\u2019s label peeled from the aquarium in which Jeff Koons floated his famous basketballs in 1985. There\u2019s a short length of shoelace from a Claes Oldenburg soft sculpture. There\u2019s a little blob of lead from an installation by Joseph Beuys, and a couple of threads from an Andy Warhol. Perhaps most significantly, there\u2019s a tiny chip of porcelain from the urinal \u201cFountain\u201d of Marcel Duchamp, taken from an unspecified exhibition.<\/p>\n

\nThe artists also claim to have lifted bits from works by Kandinsky and Rauschenberg. Sawon says the piece is being unveiled now because the statute of limitations has run out on its thefts.\n

Now the works that were damaged were arguably negligible themselves, though they are very valuable and belong to somebody.\u00a0 But I\u2019m thinking that what makes this sort of thing \u201cart\u201d\u00a0 is its ability to provoke serious commentary from\u00a0 art critics:<\/p>\n

\u201cStolen Pieces\u201d may not look that great, but like so much of the work made in the 20th century \u2014 like so much art, ever \u2014 \u201cStolen Pieces\u201d gets its force from the questions it raises.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Did these artists\u2019 tiny thefts much affect the works they stole from? Does it really matter that one of Kienholz\u2019s big junk piles is minus one bottle cap? How many of these museums\u2019 visitors would have ever noticed or been touched by the alterations?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Does \u201cStolen Pieces\u201d finally deflate the old cliche that a true masterpiece is something \u201cfrom which nothing can be taken and to which nothing can be added without harm\u201d? There\u2019s hardly a single work by an Old Master that doesn\u2019t look substantially different than it did when it was fresh, and yet we still find plenty to admire in them. (In fact, people objected like crazy when Michelangelo\u2019s Sistine Chapel ceiling was returned to some semblance of its original bright colors.)<\/p>\n

\u2014 Originally, weren\u2019t most of the targeted works themselves all about attacking<\/em> old-fashioned notions of the precious work of art whose every detail deserves to be worshipped? Before he became famous, Oldenburg let his viewers touch and take away his ultra-sloppy works of art. I can\u2019t imagine that C\u00e9sar could have seen the speedometers on his crushed cars as equivalent to so many brushstrokes by Titian, to be preserved at any cost. Did Beuys really treasure every blob of metal scattered during one of his anti-object performances?<\/p>\n

\u2014 By making almost imperceptible alterations to other works of art, Eva and Franco Mattes have created a significant new one. Does that leave the world of art a richer place or a poorer one? (So long as no other vandals follow in these artists\u2019 footsteps, that is. But once the Matteses\u2019 move has been made, there\u2019s no reason for anyone else to repeat it.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

via Blake Gopnik \u2013 Couple stole more than other artists\u2019 ideas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Significant new art?<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a high culture that no longer believes in beauty or meaning, art becomes reduced to interesting gestures.\u00a0 Consider this \u201cwork,\u201d as described by art critic Blake Gopnik: On Saturday evening, in the back room at Postmasters Gallery in Chelsea, veteran dealer Magdalena Sawon gave me an early glimpse of a work called \u201cStolen Pieces,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57,571,784],"class_list":["post-5585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-stolen-pieces","tag-contemporary-art","tag-eva-and-franco-mattes"],"yoast_head":"\nArt vandalism as art<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a high culture that no longer believes in beauty or meaning, art becomes reduced to interesting gestures.\u00a0 Consider this "work," as described by art\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/art-vandalism-as-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Art vandalism as art\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a high culture that no longer believes in beauty or meaning, art becomes reduced to interesting gestures.\u00a0 Consider this "work," as described by art\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/art-vandalism-as-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-24T10:56:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/art-vandalism-as-art\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/art-vandalism-as-art\/\",\"name\":\"Art vandalism as art\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-24T10:56:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-05-24T10:56:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"In a high culture that no longer believes in beauty or meaning, art becomes reduced to interesting gestures.\u00a0 Consider this \\\"work,\\\" as described by art\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/art-vandalism-as-art\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/art-vandalism-as-art\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/art-vandalism-as-art\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Art vandalism as art\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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