14 December 2012

Pathetic little rick gets two years for efacing Rothko pinting

Wlodzimierz Umaniec, also known as Vladimir Umanets who vandalised one of Tate's  collection of Rothko paintings   has been jailed for two years.

According to the  Guardian Umanets, a 26-year-old Polish national who lives in Worthing, West Sussex, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to criminal damage in excess of £5,000. In this case it was well in excess, with estimates suggesting it will cost more than £200,000 and 20 months to restore.

Judge Roger Chapple, at Inner London crown court, said it was "abundantly clear" that Umaniec was "plainly an intelligent man" who regarded Rothko as a "great painter".

The incident happened at around 3.25pm on 7 October this year, when Umaniec approached one of Rothko's Seagram murals, Black on Maroon, took out a brush and some black paint and wrote his name along with 'A Potential Piece of Yellowism' in the corner of the work.

He later claimed it was an artistic act, comparing himself to Marcel Duchamp, whose appropriation of a urinal in 1917 led to him being regarded as the father of conceptual art. Umaniec had told the BBC: "Art allows us to take what someone's done and put a new message on it."


Rothko's Seagram murals, originally planned for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, were a gift to the Tate by the artist in 1969 and are regarded as some of Tate Modern's most important works.
The court heard that Umaniec went to the gallery intending to put his "signature" on a picture, but decided to damage the Rothko painting only at the time he saw it on display.


The restoration will be long and difficult, not least because Rothko often used unusual materials, including eggs and glue, to create his works.


Two years is a long time but Umanets is a sad littleprick who isn't fit to lick the boots of an artist like Rothko.  Perhas he can treat his prison time as a for mof closed erformance art. Not sure if there is any yellow in his prison gear.

4 comments:

Andrew MacLaren-Scott said...

Strange though. Most people who assault a person for the first time get let off and told not to be naughty again

jams o donnell said...

Perhaps some other punishment for umanets.Not sure what though... Make hi paint yellow lines on the side of the road.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Oh well, let him do the time. Still, the man what pissed in Marcel Duchamp's urinal has my full support and admiration. And the more the merrier.

jams o donnell said...

t least piss doesn't damage porcelain!