When Uriel Landeros walked up to Picasso’s Woman in a Red Armchair at the Menil museum in Houston and spray-painted a stencil of a bullfighter killing a bull and a muddled “conquista” (“to conquer”) message for the people we were like… ok, whatever. Then he got a hyped art show and we was like… meh, because the art was meh and… meh.
Landeros was on the run since but was arrested yesterday after surrendering to U.S. Marshalls at the U.S.-Mexico border. Woah. And also, meh.
We’re living in a post-Yellowism world. If you’ve got a solid or intriguing treatise to go with that act of vandalism, then you adopt a context for your actions. That doesn’t mean you’ll avoid legal, fiscal and social punishment, but you will get context. So, then if you’re entering this genre… which, of course, we are not endorsing, of course, because who doest that… Some advice: Have clearer messages — like famous radical Russian artist Alexander Brener who spray-painted a green “$” on a Malevich in 1997. Use a novel medium — like the notorious Istvan Kantor who painted “X” on museum paintings and wall all through the ’70s IN HIS OWN BLOOD. Ball hard and you’re going to jail… at least have some purpose and flair. Think big.
