Poor Picasso. His “Femme au fauteuil rouge (Woman in a Red Armchair)” (1929) was vandalized last week at Houston’s Menil Collection and the artist claiming responsibility for the action, Uriel Llanderos, has essentially been bragging about his bravado on his rather sparse Facebook page.
A close-up of the stencil someone vandalized on Picasso’s at the Menil Collection, Houston (screenshot from http://youtu.be/dhDgxNsLzgM)
But the story doesn’t stop there. The man who videotaped the attack claims he was not involved in the action, yet his YouTube video of the incident is clearly labeled with the supposed perpetrator’s name and the following words:
A photo of Uriel Llanderos from his Facebook page.
“Young Mexican-American artist URIEL LANDEROS, paints a stencil of a bullfighter killing a bull over an original 1929 Picasso painting in Houston TX.
**In Dedication to the art beast Pablo Picasso**”
Not exactly the label of an uninterested onlooker. Now this videotaping eyewitness, who is still claiming to not know the artist, has, according to Houston’s CultureMap, encountered the same man a few days after the event. They write:
” … the eyewitness said he unexpectedly bumped into the tagger-artist several days later and asked him about the incident. The vandal gave him a hand-written letter detailing his artistic motivations.”
What did the letter say?
“I dedicate this to all the people out there who have suffered for any injustice of every kind. To those abused by their loved ones. For those abused by their government. For those who were abused by organized religion. And to Picasso from artist to artist. The beast is meant to be conquered. Picasso loved bullfighting because he knew at the end of the dance, someone had to die and on the day it was his turn.”
Something is obviously fishy in this story. No one has been charged in the Picasso incident at the Menil Collection, which is strange in and of itself. CultureMap does report today that an email circulated among faculty and staff at the University of Houston on Monday that a student from the university has been linked to the crime, but nothing has been made public.
I know I’m not the only person who believes that the videotaper must be related or connected to the vandal, if it is indeed Llanderos. The Menil Collection confirmed to the Associated Press that the incident did indeed take place and they seem equally suspicious of the man who recorded the incident:
“People have wondered if this YouTube (video) was shot by a bystander who just happened to be there at that moment or if it’s more akin to perpetrators, plural,” [Vance] Muse[, a spokesman for the Menil Collection] said. “I just don’t know. But I hope we find out.”
So do we.
Editorial note: The original video that was posted soon after the incident (and previously found here) has since been removed from YouTube (and the account that posted the video has been closed) but the video remains online and we’ve replaced the video at the beginning of this post with another copy.
The Latest
Art Problems: How Do I Get a Public Art Commission?
Want to leave a mark on your city or town, but don’t know where to start? Paddy Johnson has some tips.
Rose B. Simpson Embeds Ancestral Histories in Clay
She has taken clay and used it to recall its ancestral roots in Pueblo culture and address the present history of postcolonial recovery and ongoing trauma.
Mondays at Pratt Institute: Weekly Openings of Work by Graduating Artists
Free and open to the public, Pratt Shows celebrate the school’s graduating students. MFA and BFA work on view this spring in Brooklyn, New York.
Quiet Paintings at a Time of Sensory Overload
Where Kim Mikyung’s process suggests an obsessive burrowing into the self, Kim Hyung-dae casts his gaze upward and outward into the sky.
Is the “Free the Nipple” Movement Too White?
Online representations of the activists lean White and thin, creating an image problem for the movement.
LSU School of Art Grants Highest MFA Stipends in the Southern US
With funded assistantships, full tuition waivers, and generous stipends, Louisiana State University helps students lay the groundwork for a successful lifelong art practice.
New “We ❤️ NYC” Campaign Misses the Mark
The recently unveiled design is meant to live alongside the iconic original and specifically address the city, but New Yorkers are not happy.
1,000+ Objects at The Met Linked to Antiquities Smugglers
A report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed hundreds of works once owned by people accused of or convicted of antiquities crimes.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago Offers Summer Art and Design Courses Online and On-Campus
Emerging and established artists can choose from over 50 Adult Continuing Education courses at one of the most influential art and design schools in the US.
Lunar Bead Necklace and Asteroid “Emoji” Head to Auction
Christie’s bizarre sale features other space rocks propped up on stands like sculptures.
Scientists Create the First Full Brain Map of a Fly
The achievement is a giant step toward understanding human neural networks.
IDSVA Offers a Non-Studio PhD in Visual Arts: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory
With no campus, the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts is a truly nomadic institution, existing everywhere our students and faculty are.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Closes Over Climate Protest
The institution shuttered in advance of an action planned for the 33rd anniversary of its infamous art heist.
Remembering the Migrants Who Died in US Detention
Artist Jackie Amézquita will lead a caravan of trucks with the names of the deceased to LA sites representing systems of oppression and solidarity for immigrants.
I´m gonna puke…… what an idiot! let us not give this ignorant fool anymore press please!
the stencil is not even well done, there is no graphic purpose, no composition, line is too thin, no integration with the whole painting, horrible typography and not legible…… go back to lower school art lessons, maybe there you´ll learn something about real art!
It’s all SO sketchy! I wonder why they haven’t charged or questioned Landeros (although maybe they have and we just don’t know…)
I hate this, but I hate it even more because the stencil isn’t even cool. #HUGEFAIL
Also, you can’t take pictures in the Menil. Guards have come up to me for simply texting, thinking I was doing something fishy. So someone casually on their phone, positioned to shoot a video is suspicious in and of itself. And, agreed–that stencil is baaad.
Great.. another talentless asshole trying to jump start his career by destroying someone else’s work.
I dont think much can be extrapolated about the art world, art history, oppression or whatever Llanderos is saying but it is a hell of a story!