Two women were arrested by French police last week at the Pompidou-Metz Center after attacking Gustave Courbet's "The Origin of the World" (1866) by spray-painting it with the words "Me Too."
Police said the Courbet was protected by “glass” and would be assessed for damage. It was loaned by the Center Pompidou in Paris as part of an exhibition about French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, who once owned the painting.
The women were performance artists who worked with the artist and activist Deborah de Robertis, who once made news for appearing nude in front of Édouard's “Olympia” (1863). Manet and the “Mona Lisa”, in acts of performative protest. A video of the protest was released on Vimeo.
De Robertis organized the action as part of a performance work called “You Don't Separate the Woman from the Artist”. The title is an apparent nod to ongoing debates about whether art can be enjoyed regardless of the misdeeds of the creator – specifically men who abuse women.
The artist told AFP that the actions were a feminist performance, carried out because “the very closed world of contemporary art has remained largely silent until now”.
In a statement, shared by text message and available on his blog, de Robertis denounced the behavior of men described as “predators” in the art world, citing art critic and curator Bernard Marcadé, who co-organized the Center Pompidou exhibition. Metz.
Marcadé did not respond to a request for comment.
The Courbet was one of five works of art in the Lacan show marked with the phrase “Me Too,” associated with the international movement against sexual violence that rose to prominence in 2017. Pieces by Valie Export, Louise Bourgeois and Rosmarie Trockel were also marked, along with a photograph of de Robertis, taken during the performance “Mirror of Origin” (2014).
After the incidents, the activists were dragged away by security guards while shouting “Me Too”.
“With all due respect to feminist movements, we are shocked to see the vandalization of works by artists, especially feminist artists, who are at the center of struggles in art history,” said Chiara Parisi, director of the Center Pompidou-Metz.
Among the other works targeted was “Aktionshose: Genitalpanik” (1969/2021), by Valie Export, which shows the artist sitting on a chair with her vulva exposed. The avant-garde Austrian artist released a statement on social media denouncing the destruction of the work.
“Each work of art has its own language, a language that artists give to their works of art,” Export said. “It is an autonomous language, an autonomous language that cannot be interfered with without the artist’s consent. If this autonomous language is violated by an intervention not authorized by the artist, it is an unauthorized intervention and the autonomy of the work of art is destroyed.”
“I call on all women, with or without vulvas, all intersex, trans and non-binary people, and all underrepresented people – whether artists, assistants or interns in the art world – to dare to express themselves”, said de Robertis.
In 2020, a French court ordered de Robertis to pay a fine of 2,000 euros for appearing nude in 2018 in front of a Catholic pilgrimage site dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the city of Lourdes in southwestern France. A case against her was filed in 2017, after she showed her vulva in front of the “Mona Lisa” in the Louvre.
Source: Artnet News