Do we see eye to eye? Or do we turn a blind eye? It could just be that something catches our eye.
Such was the case in Russia more than a week ago. I know this story is old news, but it bears repeating. I laughed out loud when I heard it. It has to do with the world of art.
As a preemptive to this story, I must tell you that I am a lover of art. I would rather go to an art museum when visiting a big city than do most any other thing. The couple of times I’ve met to the Met, I didn’t want to leave. But but the rest of my traveling cohorts were always ready to go see the rest of New York.
Another sidebar. I’ve attended a few different colleges, taking different paths to earn my Bachelor’s degree. In every one, I always took an “Art Appreciation” course, as I love to learn about art and its artists.
With both of these things in mind, I completely understand the sacred and protected rights of an art piece. Though shall not touch. The “eyes” can have it, but not the hands. And so goes this story.
Last week, a Russian art gallery guard was accused of touching a painting he was responsible for guarding. Not only did he touch it, but he drew on it.
Yes, The painting was Anna Leporskaya’s work, Three Figures. The avant-garde painting displays three abstract figures whose faces are blank, featureless, vacant.
So, during his first day on the job, the security guard, whose name has not been released, sauntered by the Leporskaya piece. He gave it a good, long look, I’m sure. Maybe he walked by it several times before retrieving a ballpoint pen and drawing a little tiny set of eyes on the figures.
“There. That’s better,” he said in Russian. And nodded his head in approval.
The painting hangs in the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg. A couple of visitors to the museum were the first to notice the added eyes.
His first dang day on the job. Way to go, Yuri.
Since then, the security guard has been fired, and the police have opened a criminal investigation. Though, I’m not sure why. The security tapes clearly show him using the pen to do his work.
The exhibition curator Anna Reshetkina told the Russian news: “His motives are still unknown, but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse of insanity,” she said.
She added that he drew the eyes onto the painting with one of the Yeltsin Center’s own branded pens, penetrating a layer of the paint.
A lapse of insanity? Pshaw. The guy just couldn’t stand seeing those blank faces. I feel the same way about those faceless angel figures that seem to be so popular.
At any rate, the guy could get up to three months in prison.
By this point, the painting has probably already been restored.
But get this. Protective screens have since been installed over the other works in the Yeltsin Center’s exhibition. I think, in most cases, that is what the security guards are for. I am always disappointed when I have to view a painting through a “protective screen.” I’d rather see it up close and personal.
But that’s me.
I found the story incredibly funny because there have been times when walking through a gallery (especially modern art galleries) where I have thought, “What in the holy heck is that?” I didn’t “get” the artist’s art. Or, in this case, I understand that undeniable urge to draw a little smiley face on something. A lot of round objects in our house have fallen victim to my black Sharpie marker.
Mostly? I think that guard was just trying to improve the world, in his eyes. I hope the poor guy isn’t sitting somewhere in Siberia, in a little prison cell, freezing his ballpoint pens off.
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“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
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“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.”
― Émile Zola
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“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
― Thomas Merton , No Man Is an Island
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“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
― Pablo Picasso
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A wandering eye, I wonder.
