Today’s press conference by Miami artist Maximo Caminero, the man who destroyed part of Ai Weiwei’s “Colored Vases” (2006–12) at the Perez Art Museum Miami, never happened. However, BBC has uncovered unverified video of the incident, which is available on their website and we’ve summarized as a GIF.
There is no public information available as to the identity of the person who captured the video of the incident.
In June 2012, an artist vandalized a Picasso at Houston’s Menil Collection, and the incident was recorded and posted on YouTube. Many people continue to suspect that the person who recorded the Houston event — and has since removed the video and closed the related account — was connected to the vandal.
The Latest
MTV’s The Exhibit Is Back With an Inflatable Dolphin
Episode four, in which artists tackled themes of justice and injustice, was the most lifeless of the reality TV show so far.
Florida Principal Ousted Over “Pornographic” Michelangelo Sculpture
Parents complained that the famous sculpture was shown to their sixth graders.
The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation Presents The Feminine in Abstract Painting
Curated by Jennifer Samet and Andrea Belag, this group exhibition in NYC explores the feminine through aesthetics, as opposed to identity or gender.
Tickets to Sold-Out Vermeer Show Are Going for Hundreds
The online resale market for the Rijksmuseum’s smash exhibition is booming, with tickets selling on eBay for over $2K.
NYU Steinhardt Opens 2023 MFA Thesis Exhibitions
Taking place at 80WSE Gallery in New York’s Greenwich Village, Part I is on view from late March through April while Part II opens in May.
Miniature Worlds: Joseph Cornell, Ray Johnson, Yayoi Kusama
Through small-scale works, this exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art in New York examines Cornell’s prominent role in the lives and careers of Johnson and Kusama.
Three Looted Antiquities at the Met Repatriated to Turkey
Nine other repatriated works were seized from Met Trustee Shelby White, whose collection was subject to a criminal investigation.
Required Reading
This week, the world’s lightest paint, Pakistan’s feminist movement, World Puppy Day, and were some of Vermeer’s paintings created by his daughter?
The Wider World and Scrimshaw
On March 28, join the New Bedford Whaling Museum online and in-person for a symposium on global carving traditions from across the Pacific Rim.
Who Will Decide on the Future of a Miami Native Burial Ground?
Native activists say sacred remains and objects dug up from a Brickell construction site should remain there, but mega-developer Jorge Pérez is pushing back.
How Can a Curator Approach South Asian Futurisms?
How do I acknowledge my shortcomings while reckoning with obscured histories and the exclusion of subaltern narratives in the fine art landscape? A working checklist for curators.
MCA Chicago Presents On Stage: Frictions
Will Rawls, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, and Barak adé Soleil explore Blackness, queerness, movement, and dance in performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
The Complicated Legacy of Camilo Egas
The Ecuadorian painter, a leading figure of Latin America’s Indigenismo art movement, has been both praised and scorned for his representation of Indigenous peoples.
Tom Jones Zeroes in on Ho-Chunk Visibility
“I think about the young kids, the teenagers, and I think being able to see yourself represented in art is so powerful,” says the artist.
oops
It’s almost like the picture of Ai in the background at the museum is a foreshadowing of events.
Somehow it looks like he is doing exactly what he is supposed to.
First, I don’t know why the BBC reporter finds the destruction of one person’s art by another FUNNY. Second, I don’t know why the security guards didn’t rush this guy before he did damage to anything else. And third, when does the horrible trend of looping GIFs end???
The GIF thing will never end. You’re doomed! Mwaaaahhahahaha!!!!
it’s a goddamn vase, they’ll get over it
Yes, it’s tough to weep much over the “loss” of a piece of largely conceptual art. Works by guys like Gonzalez-Torres are constantly being “consumed” and replaced.
Hopefully Weiwei puts a call into one of his assistants to drizzle some paint over another vase and puts this tragedy behind us.
In the meantime, another art vandal gets his media soapbox.
Anyone want to bet that he is somehow related to the kids that climbed on the Donald Judd (joking)
Destroy all the art! I don’t think Ai Wei Wei understands that this is a political protest, but then, the people that are being protested against rarely understand the reasoning. I think we should go into all museums and destroy everything. Time for a new generation of art that is less focused on the individual and more focused on the collective.
Marinetti, is that you?
There is one thing that is overlooked about the irony of the whole pottery smash. Ai Weiwei
made a name for himself by smashing a Ming Dynasty Vase that he took from a display at a Museum in China. The Vase was considerable Priceless.