The treasured work hangs in the National Gallery of London, where things got very, very messy.
People in the gallery lost their shit watching the spillage go down. “Gasps, roars, and a shout of ‘Oh my gosh!’” filled the room as orange gloop dripped macabrely down the painting,
reports. Once the soup had been dispatched, the activists, who had donned Just Stop Oil shirts for the event, promptly glued themselves to the wall under the artwork.Presumably, the oil painting was a symbolic choice for the anti-fossil fuels organization. “What is worth more, art or life?” said one of the soup activists while stuck to the wall.
The artwork is glazed, and apart from minor damage to the frame, the painting is allegedly unharmed. The protestors have been arrested for aggravated trespass and criminal damage. They’re currently in custody at a central London police station, reportsfrom. Some are criticizing the move as misguided. For starters, van Gogh used linseed oil paints—not the crude stuff produced by the oil and gas industry today, said. “I’m struggling to understand why destroying a painting of sunflowers done by Van Gogh, an impoverished man who was marginalized in his local community due to his mental illness, is the right target to make a statement about how awful the oil industry is,” they continued. AnotherOthers tried to make sense of it.
. “But the painting, and painters, and all art and artists will not be protected from climate change, which I suppose is, or was, the point.”