museumuesum:
Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Brener
Suprematisme, 1920-1927, January 4th 1997
oil on canvas, 88 x 68.5cm
Alexander Brener, a 39 year old Russian performance artist (who first came to the attention of the art world after damaging a painting by Chinese artist Gu Wenda ), sprayed a green dollar sign over fellow Russian Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematisme 1920-1927.
On Saturday morning January 4th 1997, after supposedly traveling to Amsterdam for the express purpose of damaging the painting, Brener sprayed a green dollar sign on the work. The oil on canvas painting depicts a white cross on a light grey background and Brener said he intended the dollar sign to appear nailed to the cross.
Brener surrended himself to museum security and in a statement made later to police demanded his work be viewed as a protest against “corruption and commercialism in the art world”and as such - performance art.
The Amsterdam Criminal Court felt otherwise, and sentenced Brener to ten months imprisonment and two year’s probation during which time he was prohibited from entering the Stedelijk Museum. Five months were suspended (with the time spent in pre-trial detention subtracted) but during his prison term, Brener supposedly engaged in a hunger strike as a protest against the harsh penalty imposed on him.
In court Brener is recorded as saying ‘The cross is a symbol of suffering, the $ a symbol of trade and merchandise. On humanitarian grounds are the ideas of Jesus Christ of higher significance than those of the money. What I did WAS NOT against the painting, I view my act as a dialogue with Malevich.
