You might think that a museum wouldn’t have to tell visitors not to stick chewing gum on the art. But you would be wrong — as the Detroit Institute of Arts just found out.
At the DIA on Friday, a mischievous 12-year-old boy visiting the museum with a school group took a piece of barely chewed Wrigley’s Extra Polar Ice out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler’s 1963 abstract painting “The Bay,” damaging one of the most important modern paintings in the museum’s collection and a landmark picture in the artist’s output.
Though the picture, acquired by the DIA in 1965 and worth an estimated $1.5 million, is expected to make a full recovery, ….[.continue.]
Darn kids these days have no respect for anything.
Let’s take a look at “The Bay”
Wait, that is worth $1.5 million?
The kid was suspended for putting a piece of gum on that?
So I guess the kid wasn’t on Ritalin or anything else that would allow him to “appreciate” that “great”, um artwork.
Becky Hart, assistant curator of contemporary art tried to explain to him the museum’s role in preserving cultural and visual history. “I knew that probably wouldn’t make any sense to him, so I asked him what kind of music he liked.
He said he liked rap, so I said, ‘Well, you know what rock ‘n’ roll is,’ and he did, so I said, ‘Can you imagine if somebody had messed up the beat in rock and roll so you didn’t have any rhythm in rap.’ And he looked at me, and he got it immediately.”
Um yeah, ‘messing up’ rock n roll is like putting a piece of gum on that thing.
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So it’s okay to you to put gum on a painitng you don’t like? It’s not about whether you like the painting or not, it’s about respect for other people’s property. Everyone should learn that 12 year old or adult.
No it’s not ok, but I don’t think the kid should have been suspended. Instead of suspending him for putting a piece of gum somewhere he shouldn’t have, he should have been given some work. He should have been made to do a report on Helen Frankenthaler, or on art restoration. Something that would help him appreciate art more than adults telling him that what he did was bad.
I do think the 1.5million value is just insane. Sure its art, but anything my 8 year old niece can reproduce in watercolor in 10 minutes should not be worth that much.
It’s about respect. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean you can do what you want. Also if this child puts gum on art what does he do with it at other times. Odds are he leaves presents for other people to walk in. when my son started chewing gum the rules were spelled out. It is either in the mouth or the garbage can.