The End of Fear
Tue 5 Feb 2019
In 1986 one of the most famous crimes against art was committed when a man attacked a Barnett Newman painting in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum with a box cutter; the large abstract canvas entitled Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III was slashed in an act of anti-modernist vandalism. The American conservator Daniel Goldreyer was hired to restore the painting but when the canvas was returned to the gallery, it had been plastered over with red paint and a roller, finally destroying the work of art. Artist and film-maker Barbara Visser calls into question the value of art, cultural gatekeeping and notions of appropriation and authorship with her playful and innovative investigation into what makes art art.
