Article from: Art News
At the Courtauld, two activists with the group affixed themselves to Vincent van Gogh’s Peach Trees in Blossom (1889), which is considered a highlight of the museum’s Impressionist and Post-Impressionist holdings.
The Courtauld Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yesterday, activists Carmen Lean and Hannah Torrance Bright attached themselves to Horatio McCulloch’s painting My Heart’s in the Highlands (1860). There have not been any reports of damage to the McCulloch painting.
Torrance Bright is currently a student at the Glasgow School of Art, and Lean is an architecture student.
Lean explained the choice of My Heart’s in the Highlands in the same statement.
“This landscape was painted in 1860 at the height of the highland clearances, when whole crofting [small scale farming] communities were evicted by a new class of landlords ruthlessly pursuing their own private interests,” said Lean. “It was only when crofters organized and resisted that they won rights.”
Lean added that the threat from oil and gas companies should spur people to learn from history, saying, “Civil disobedience is scary but it is the only sane thing to do and you won’t regret it.”
The museum closed early yesterday but reopened on a normal schedule today.
Update, 6/30/22, 2:54 p.m.: This story was updated to include Just Stop Oil’s action at the Courtauld Institute.
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Article from: Art News
