#Just Stop Oil Protesters Throw Soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers Painting

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Just Stop Oil Protesters Throw Soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers Painting 

Just Stop Oil activists have thrown Heinz tomato soup over Vincent Van Gogh's masterpiece 'Sunflowers' at the National Gallery in London.

The protestors, wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, threw two tins of Heinz Tomato soup over the 1888 work - estimated to be worth £76 million - shortly after 11am today before kneeling down in front of the painting and appearing to glue their hands to the wall beneath it

Visitors were then shortly escorted out by security, who then shut the doors to room 43 of the gallery where the painting hangs.

After throwing soup on the painting - which has a glass cover - protestor Phoebe Plummer, 21, yelled: 'What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? More than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting, or the protection of our planet and people?

'The cost of living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis.'

The National Gallery has confirmed that the painting was unharmed apart from 'minor damage' to the frame.

The Met Police said that both Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested for criminal damage and aggravated trespass, and officers were working to 'de-bond' them.

Art historian Ruth Millington said: 'I think that attacking one of the world's most loved paintings, which I would call priceless, will not gain these protestors public support. That is what which they need in order to effect real change.

'What has happened today provides a perfect example of why the painting is protected by glass, luckily.'

Activist Anna Holland, 20, from Newcastle said: 'UK families will be forced to choose between heating or eating this winter, as fossil fuel companies reap record profits.

'But the cost of oil and gas isn't limited to our bills. Somalia is now facing an apocalyptic famine, caused by drought and fuelled by the climate crisis.

'Millions are being forced to move and tens of thousands face starvation. This is the future we choose for ourselves if we push for new oil and gas.'

The demonstrators were surrounded by a group of photographers and journalists when they attacked the painting, before the press were asked to leave by National Gallery Staff.

Police were called shortly afterwards to un-glue the climate activists from the wall of the National Gallery and arrested two people for criminal damage.

A National Gallery spokesman said: 'At just after 11am this morning two people entered Room 43 of the National Gallery. The pair appeared to glue themselves to the wall adjacent to Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' (1888). They also threw a red substance - what appears to be tomato soup - over the painting.

'The room was cleared of visitors and police were called. Officers are now on the scene. There is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed.

'Two people have been arrested.'

In a tweet from the Metropolitan Police Events account, the force said: 'Officers were rapidly on scene at the National Gallery this morning after two Just Stop Oil protesters threw a substance over a painting and then glued themselves to a wall.

'Both have been arrested for criminal damage & aggravated trespass. Officers are now de-bonding them.'

[without-ado]

Environmental protesters from Just Stop Oil sprayed paint over Stonehenge on the eve of the summer solstice celebrations. (read at REUTERS l 2024 June)

Climate change protesters from Just Stop Oil throw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s painting "Sunflowers," causing minor damage to the frame. (read at REUTERS l 2022 Oct.)

[bumblebeeappletree]

As world leaders boarded their private jets home from Sharm El Sheikh, noticeably absent among them was youth activist Greta Thunberg, who in an interview before the conference accused world leaders and people in power of using the whole affair to grab attention, “using many different types of greenwashing.”

Reading her words, I couldn’t help but think about a group of protestors who last month grabbed the world’s attention in a more radical way than world leaders showing their faces at COP. I’m talking about SoupGate, MashedPotatoGate, and all the other protest actions that were sparked by Just Stop Oil protesters throwing a tin of tomato soup over Van Gogh’s sunflower painting in London.

In many respects the protest was a roaring success, generating international media coverage and making the front page of the New York Times. The video has been viewed almost 50 million times on Twitter alone.

[aroundtheworldiej]

The most famous sunflowers in history splashed with tomato soup.

by Garance Auboyneau, Tuesday, October 22th

On Friday October 14, two environmental activists, Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer, threw pots of tomato soup on the famous painting “Sunflower” painted by Vincent Van Gogh, exhibited at the National Gallery inLondon, to protest against new oil and gas projects.

Estimated at about $80 million and currently exhibited at the National Gallery in London, “Sunflowers”, one of the most famous paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, we're at the heart of an action led by two environmental activists. Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer, members of the British activist group “Just stop oil”, threw a can of tomato soup over the Sunflowers painting, then glued themselves to the wall.

Kept under glass, the painting was not damaged and quickly regained its place in the museum. But why did these two wanted to ruin this masterpiece by splashing it with tomato soup? What are the motivations for such a risk?

If the Van Gogh masterpiece were splashed with tomato soup, it's because the organism “Just Stop Oil”, which aims to stop the production of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, is against the recent British exploration of a new site in the North Sea, which is full of oil and gas.

For the United Kingdom, this new exploitation will bring stability, employment and strengthen energy security. Indeed, following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, gas and electricity prices have risen sharply, which explains the British Government’s decision to seek new resources. However, international climatologists strongly criticize this decision. In their view, these projects should be limited rather than expanded.

"What is most valuable, art or life ? Are you more concerned about protecting a painting or protecting our planet and people?"

What do these two activists risk ?

The two young women were quickly arrested by the police for degradation, and went to the court on Saturday 16 October, where they pleaded not guilty. Released under certain conditions, such as no longer entering a gallery or museum, their trial is nevertheless set for 13 December. Opinions on their actions are very mixed, among activists of the ecological cause.

Some think that what they have done does nothing to help the ecological cause, and that throwing a pot of soup on a painting will not stop climate change. “ The climate deserves better than this stupid caricature” report Yannick Jadot, a political member of the French political party “ the French Green party”.

While others think that this is a strong message, which shows the anger of young people against climate change that keeps growing. “ Young people are angry about climate inaction. And they are right to be angry. Really. “ said the congresswoman Sandrine Rousseau, also a member of the French Green party.

[sab-cat]

In the absence of the Mona Lisa, Just Stop Oil protesters today threw soup over one of 19th century’s most recognised images – immortalised on biscuit tins and tea towels the world over – Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. The National Gallery attack is the latest in a campaign that saw them glueing themselves to a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper in the Royal Academy in July.

Climate activists, stop this. Stop putting artifacts/art in danger of permanent damage and/or destruction. It will not accomplish anything you want to.

Museums/archives/libraries are chronically underfunded. Don't let the pretty buildings and donations fool you; these fields depend on volunteer labor.

People don't give enough of a shit about anything in these places to fully fund them. Sure you'll make some noise and royally piss off people like me who will never associate with you based on your willingness to put these things at risk, but that's it.

Pick a better target.

[idohistorysometimes]

Why the Van Gogh Soup incident was extremely dumb

Back in mid-October, a group called “Just Stop Oil” gained international infamy for throwing an open can of tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers located within London's National Gallery of Art. The painting was ultimately unharmed given the painting itself was protected under a layer of glass, but needless to say, it caused a great disturbance both physically at the gallery and in the news after the “souping” took place. Just Stop Oil has since gone on to engage in other acts of destructive activities such as closing down roads, spray painting buildings orange, and most recently destroying the statue of now King Charles by smashing its face into Chocolate cake. There have been other demonstrations linked to this group but the ones named above are the most recent.

Needless to say: I do not disagree with the cause being presented here as climate change is an extremely important issue but I do very much disagree with the methods used here. And I disagree with these methods because I myself am a museum professional.

So what went wrong here?

Just Stop Oil’s goals are rather clear; to get the UK to halt its use of fossil fuels and to force this change through acts of what has been called civil resistance. To give the reasoning as to why they chose Sunflowers by Van Gogh:

“Because of its notoriety. And it's a beautiful work of art and I think a lot of people, when they saw us, had feelings of shock or horror or outrage because they saw something beautiful and valuable and they thought it was being damaged or destroyed. But, you know, where is that emotional response when it's our planet and our people that are being destroyed.”- Pheobe Plummer, a member of Just Stop Oil and one of the people who was present for the “souping” of the afformentioned painting

Let's take a closer look at this reasoning here.

Pheobe cited wanting to incite outrage as their reasoning for throwing soup on the painting, which to give them credit, is what they did. They did cause outrage. There was a lot of media coverage of this incident. But the outrage is not going where Pheobe and the other members of Just Stop Oil intended. Its not hard to see why either. 

Stunts like this have to make sense thematically and symbolically. To give a good example of where activism similar to this makes sense in these ways let's take a look at what Civil rights protestors have done to the status of confederate soldiers and generals. 

This is a confederate war memorial that has had red paint poured on it and the phrase “THEY WERE RACISTS '' painted across the front. The paint here is supposed to symbolize blood, the blood shed through slavery and racism. And the fact the statue was splattered symbolizes the fact this person (or the group they are a part of) is responsible for that blood shed. The symbolism makes sense and works with both the subject of the protest and the message being sent. I have a strong feeling this is what Just Stop Oil was trying to do.

While you can argue Just Stop Oil’s destruction of the King Charles wax figure kind of accomplished this goal since the royal family has been discovered to have ties to the oil industry by way of money and investing, the assault of Van Gogh’s sunflowers does not have that same connection. The painting might be an Oil painting but that oil is not petroleum. It does not have any connection to the oil industry other than the fact it's made with something that has “oil” in its name. It's a bad candidate for a symbolic act because the underlying symbolism isn't there. And the more you have to explain why you did something symbolic like this the more it takes away from your movement because you are not actually making people think about your message. They are trying to understand why and how these things connect with each other. Symbolically: this fails to say anything.

Along with this, this majorly turns people off to your movement.

Optics

When it comes to subjects like climate change I think it is safe to say most people world-wide are aware of what that is. It's hard to claim they are not since storms are getting stronger, droughts are getting more frequent and more intense, and there have been worldwide food shortages and other similar issues because of this issue. The awareness is there. So given that the awareness is there and that people are being affected by this issue: it should not be too hard to win over people. However with actions like these you are not winning over those people: you are alienating them by making their lives harder.

Let's start small.

When we look at the immediate impact of vandalism like this all it does is create more work for the people who work in museums (primarily restoration specialists and custodians). For those restoration specialists they have to take a lot of time out of their day to help restore the artwork/artifact you just attempted to destroy. That takes a lot of time and effort that could have been spent on other historic pieces that the public could have enjoyed. And no,these museum employees are not privileged people who are being paid piles of money to do nothing. Their salaries are on par with that of teachers (which in the grand scheme of things is not that much given all the work they do and given factors like inflation). Working at a museum (and not being an executive) is very much a labor of love, not cash. And for those custodians who have to now scrub tomato soup stains off of the walls and floor: they now have to scrub soup that you threw off of the wall because you decided to attempt to make a point. These people are not going to be sympathetic to your cause. All they are going to really think about realistically is how much work you just made them do. And that work is not easy.

Let's zoom out a little more.

Let's look at the museum guests here. All of those people are probably in some way shape or form enjoyers of art and or art history. I would like you to imagine yourself going somewhere to see something you like. You are going to that place to see that specific thing or specific type of thing. But while you are at that place enjoying that thing you enjoy a group of protestors appears and destroys/attempts to destroy the thing you came to see in the name of their cause. Now do you necessarily disagree with the overall point of what these protests are saying? Not always. But the fact they have gone out of their way to destroy the thing you like and then proclaim “the thing you like is not as important as their cause” (which in many cases is true but that is not the point here) will automatically turn you off from what they are saying. This is what is happening here. Those people in that audience are not going to be receptive because you are not giving them a reason to be. You are, in fact, just giving that audience a reason to dislike you. 

PR is important for anything you do that is public facing. If you are trying to make a point that is impactful and that people will agree with: you need to think about how people are going to react to your stunt and take away from it. To give an example from my own line of work: we have to be very careful about how we talk about issues like Suffrage or racism because, even though it would be time period appropriate to do so, if we say things like “women are useless” or “(insert slur here)s don't deserve rights” people take that with them. They internalize that. They either view us as perpetuating those harmful sentiments in the name of history, or they use what we say to fuel their own biases. To relate what I just said back to Just Stop Oil’s painting protest: what they just did here was reinforce any bias a person had about climate change activists in that room. Even if those biases are not based in fact, they just reinforced them because they inadvertently played into them (so much so that now people are accusing them of being plants by big oil to make other climate change activists look bad). 

And when we zoom out even more the optics get even worse.

During the souping Pheobe stated: 

“Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting, or the protection of our planet and people? The cost of living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis. Fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup.”

They said this after throwing a can of tomato soup at the painting. They threw a can of soup at this painting while the UK is facing a looming food shortage caused in part by climate change and also in part by inflation (the very things they mention in their rant). The group Pheobe is a part of has also caused road closures as one of their most recent methods of protest, preventing people from going to work to earn what little money they are getting. This hurts the very people they claim to be fighting for. 

The systems in place today are inherently unfair and need to be changed. However, they are not going to stop because you are protesting against them nor will they compensate their victims because they were made late or in some other way inconvenienced because of your protest. That system is not going to be kind to the custodian who just had to clean up the soup you threw at the wall, that restoration specialist who just had to take time out of their other projects to ensure the artwork you attempted to damage is ok, or the person who could have used that can of soup for dinner. And the ripples of that realization will spread out from those people to the people in that gallery, the people reading those news articles, the people reporting on you. 

This protest fails it being meaningful because it is devoid of meaning in the places that count. 

Targeting historical artifacts, artworks, and locations that have little to no direct connection with your cause because they are old and iconic will not result in change. It will result in more criticism of your movement and damage the protests of other groups sharing your same view. We are already seeing it with the response to this protest. And I feel as Just Stop Oil’s demonstrations get more extreme, this will become more and more true.

Several archeological sites and historical structures such as Jamestown, The Moai of Rapa Nui, Chan Chan Archaeological Zone, Cape Floral South Africa, Olivewood Cemetery, and the entirety of Venice are threatened by climate change. This is not an exhaustive list either. The history and archeology world are in danger and are in danger because of rising sea levels, acid rain, and increasingly erratic weather (among many other things). This is a global problem. Nothing is untouched. No scientific or cultural field of study is safe or exempt. We stand to lose a lot here. Not just historical sites but also biodiversity, our food supply, lives. This is a problem you should be scared of. Most of us here in the history and museum world are. We do not want to see the world die because a bunch of people like having a lot of numbers in their bank account either. We hate these people as much as you do. They are often the same people who strip us of our funding and use our mission as armor to make bullshit claims about what people and society should be. They hurt us. They always have.

But what we saw back in Mid October and what we keep seeing from Just Stop Oil and from copycat groups are not going to save us. They target the wrong thing. They make a statement but do not direct it at the right thing. Vincent Van Gogh did not sign those laws on fracking nor are the employees of that museum or the guests. Go after the source of the problem, not things you can loosely relate to the problem by way of mental gymnastics. We (being museums, historical locations, etc) should not be your targets, parliament should be.

If you keep attacking us at best all you do is create a lot of work for a lot of underpaid people. At worst: you destroy irreplaceable artifacts and become known as the people who destroyed history for a cause. And while your cause might be noble, it is not a justification to destroy everything you view as beneath it to make your point. 

Take notes from Standing Rock Sioux and their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Black Lives Matter Movement and their fight to tear down racist monuments. Use those lessons with your own movement. Do not keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again and wonder why nobody is taking your side. Think things through and think of optics.

Conclusion

This entire protest, while well-intentioned, misses the point of what its trying to do. And in the process it's hurting more than just itself. None of us want to die, I think that much is clear, but soup on a wall is not going to give us that outcome. Nor will spray paint on a sign, or people tunneling under the road. 

Vote.  

Resist.

But do not make your movement about performance. Make it about results. Floundering for publicity just makes you look bad.

[p-artsypants]

UK: Climate protesters throw soup on Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’

LONDON — Climate protesters threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in London’s National Gallery on Friday to protest fossil fuel extraction, but caused no damage to the glass-covered painting. The group Just Stop Oil, which wants the British government to halt new oil and gas projects, said activists dumped two cans of tomato soup over the oil painting, one of the Dutch artist’s most iconic works. The two protesters also glued themselves to the gallery wall. The soup splashed across the glass covering the painting and its gilded frame. The gallery said “there is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed.” It was cleaned and returned to its place in the gallery on Friday afternoon. The work is one of several versions of “Sunflowers” that Van Gogh painted in the late 1880s. London’s Metropolitan Police said officers arrested two people on suspicion of criminal damage and aggravated trespass. “Specialist officers have now un-glued them and they have been taken into custody to a central London police station,” the force said in a statement.

--

If your movement requires you to try to destroy precious history, I don’t sympathize. This happened around the same time as the crypto-bro burnt a Frida Kahlo sketch. Why is art under attack??? 

[boredgamebh]

Green Agenda - Just Stop Oil

Official page:

"Just Stop Oil is a protest group that has carried out a series of high-profile protests, including throwing soup at Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in the National Gallery in London. The group is campaigning for more action on climate change. Their tactics, which have also included disrupting play at Wimbledon and Lords and blocking major roads, have faced criticism. The group resumed protests on Monday with a series of slow marches on roads."

A lot of people find Just stop oil's protests quite pointless, mainly the ones that target what have nothing to do with oil as a whole, like pool games and throwing food items at paintings.

Me for one, my opinion about them is mixed, I think the reasons their doing what they are doing are justified and right but the way they go about it are definitely questionable. I don't agree with throwing food at painting that are important to our history and statues. With the slow marches where they block the roads, they have more to do with the protest but that also causes many problems, people cant get to work, so they cant make money to take care of their family's, people cant get to hospitals in emergency's, people cant get home after a long day and need rest, ambulances, firetrucks and police will find it more difficult to make it to emergency's. There are just many things wrong with what they are doing and they just create new problems. I believe what they are fighting for is right but not the way they are going about it.

"The group has recently made headlines for its climate protests. The group's activists have threatened to disrupt Pride, the annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community."

[almyrachiam-blog]

Week 6: Digital citizenship 2: Activism and protest

Topic: Just Stop Oil

A summary on the meaning of social media activism

Social media activism involves an online form of protest and advocacy for causes, it raises awareness on social media justice issues and demonstrates unity by utilizing use of hashtags, creating websites, and social media posts, and organizing campaigns (Newberry 2022).

The organisation: Just Stop Oil

A sample of a tainted organization’s campaign would be the “ Just Stop Oil” movement run by a British environmental activist group that wants the United Kingdom to reject agreements to new fossil fuel projects. The organization desires that the government should “Immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration,development, and production of fossil fuels in the United Kingdom”, the reason being that fossil fuel projects are one of the top causes of climate change (BBC News 2023). 

The activist group is known to result in a ‘non-violent civil resistance’ method of protesting where the protest is done in a way where innocent civilians are not harmed or affected by it (BBC News 2023). JustStopOil has many sets of viral videos in which they staged many high-profile protests, a prime example would be throwing soup at Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower painting that is located at the National Gallery with two people wearing the Just Stop Oil T-shirts (BBC News 2023).

The protestors had also caused closed roads and traffic jams by blocking the Severn Bridge in England where the police had arrested protestors who were driving slower at 30mph on the Prince of Wales Bridge (Barradale 2022). The methods that are used by JustStopOil can be classified as illegal and it can result in getting fined, jail time, or both where applicable. One such illegal protesting method used by Just Stop Oil is by method of road blocking and slow marching down the freeway. In England and Wales, a total of 51 weeks of imprisonment as a penalty will be applied to offenders who are willfully obstructing highways (BBC News 2023).

The Usage of Online Manipulation Tactics

However, JustStopOil has been known for using victim playing as a method of trying to gain attention and support from the public. Victim Playing can be defined as a method of manipulation through the usage of manipulating someone’s guilt in order to get what the protestors want (Leonard 2022). This issue can be further justified by their social media account on Instagram where protestors show others how the protest members are arrested by government officials to clarify the so-called ‘non-violent against civilians’ method of protesting by arguing that no bad intentions were intended to harm any civilians physically. 

 Moreover, JustStopOil had claimed that they had been harrassed by the government authorities for their actions but in reality, the protest campaign had heavily affected the lives of innocent civilians. However, JustStopOil has been known for using victim playing as a method of trying to gain attention and support from the public. Victim Playing can be defined as a method of manipulation through the usage of manipulating someone’s guilt, or in short guilt-tripping, in order to get what the protestors want. Usually, people that victim play-act in a way where they are attention seeking, trying to inflict guilt, or even just trying to avoid accountability for their actions (Leonard 2022).

JustStopOil is also known for using the victim playing card against the public and audience in order to gain sympathy through exploiting the guilt of individuals by telling others of their hardships and challenges to further exploit the kindness of people. This issue can be further justified by their social media account on Instagram where protestors show others how the protest members are arrested by government officials to clarify the so-called ‘non-violent against civilians’ method of protesting. 

Misinformation and Effects of Fake News

In conclusion, JustStopOil has been using social media as a form of spreading misinformation and fake news about the causes of bad environmental factors being through human activities only such as the production of new oils and gas (Turrentine 2022). Another method used by JustStopOil in terms of social media is the production of negative content regarding videos and pictures posted which the protestants dare to result in committing unlawful acts towards society by destroying public items in order to further promote their cause after doing so.

In short, it is promoting individuals to act not in accordance with the law of the government and to state that there are much more valid reasons such as stopping the usage of oil to encourage instead of focusing on appreciating artworks or sportsmanship. Resulting in support from viewers who are encouraging the protestants to use acts of immoral violence on objects instead of physically hurting people. This can cause the younger generations to be influenced easily by their social media posts as their lives mainly revolve around learning about news and being educated about current world issues through viral social media awareness (Kohnova 2020).

References

BBC News 2023, ‘Just stop oil: What is it and what are its goals?’, BBC News, BBC, viewed October 17, 2023, <https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63543307>. 

Barradale, G 2022, ‘Fuel protests: What you need to know about the protesters blocking roads’, The Big Issue, The Big Issue, viewed 17 October, 2023, <https://www.bigissue.com/news/activism/fuel-protests-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-protesters-blocking-roads/>. 

Chin, B 2023, ‘WEEK6| DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP 2: ACTIVISM AND PROTEST’, Digital Communities, lecture. 

Demos, TJ 2023, ‘Is there a future for just stop oil’s art protests?’, ArtReview RSS, viewed 17 October, 2023, <https://artreview.com/is-there-a-future-for-just-stop-oil-art-protests/>. 

JustStopOil 2022, ‘Graphics – just stop oil’, Just Stop Oil – No More Oil and Gas, viewed 17 October, 2023, <https://juststopoil.org/graphics/>. 

Leonard, E 2022, ‘3 ways to tell when someone is playing the victim’, Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, viewed 17 October, 2023, <https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/peaceful-parenting/202211/3-ways-tell-when-someone-is-playing-the-victim>. 

Newberry, C 2023, ‘Social Media Activism in 2023: How to go beyond the hashtag’, Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard, viewed 17 December, 2023, <https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-activism/#:~:text=Social%20media%20activism%20is%20an,used%20interchangeably%20with%20hashtag%20activism.>. 

Papula, J 2020, ‘Generation Z: Social media as a tool for education - researchgateJ’, Researchagate, viewed 17 October, 2023, <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357827290_Generation_Z_social_media_as_a_tool_for_education>. 

[xtruss]

Last summer, two climate activists, from Just Stop Oil, covered and glued themselves to a painting called "The Hay Wain" by John Constable hanging in London's National Gallery. The painting, which depicts an idyllic country landscape, was covered with a picture depicting a dystopian, polluted image of the same scene. Photograph By Kristian Buus, In Pictures/Getty Images

Throwing Soup At A Van Gogh? Why Climate Activists Are Targeting Art

By tossing paint and food on the glass exterior protecting famous paintings, activists say they’re conveying a powerful message—art cannot exist on a destroyed planet.

— By YessEnia Funes | July 19, 2023

When Georgia B. Smith recently walked into the Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 24, she felt nervous. The 34-year-old wasn’t there to admire 18th-century paintings alongside New York City’s summer tourists; with red marker on her hands and black tape on her mouth, she was there to disrupt.

Smith is part of a growing climate activist movement whose protests center art and museums. Since at least May 2022, environmentalists with groups like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion have been using cake, soup, paint, and glue to capture the attention of museum visitors—by marking the glass protecting art pieces and attaching themselves to the frame or wall surrounding them. Each time, their message is simple: there is no art on a dead planet.

But these climate activists say they have no interest in damaging art. Instead, they want to raise awareness about the climate emergency and attract new members. By at least one measure, their approach is working: Smith became involved with the New York City chapter of Extinction Rebellion only after protesters began focusing on museums. She had marched peacefully in defense of Black lives and women’s rights, but she had never put her body on the line—not until Extinction Rebellion.

“I saw this action at an art museum… and it was a controversial action, but I know why they’re doing this. I feel the same desperation these people are feeling,” Smith said.

Calling Attention To Climate Change

Everyone is affected by the planet’s rising temperature. July kicked off with the Earth’s hottest week on record. Meanwhile, marine heat waves are driving mass death of ocean creatures. Wildfire seasons are intensifying, leading to unprecedented air quality warnings. Farmers are struggling to grow food as soils either dry out from too little rain or wash out from too much. The result? Famine.

Last October, climate protestors from Just Stop Oil threw canned tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh's famous "Sunflowers" painting at the National Gallery in London. Photograph By Just Stop Oil, Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

While the protests’ provocative nature has drawn mixed public reactions, organizers don’t plan to change gears anytime soon—especially after the federal government criminally charged two of their peers for smearing red paint on the glass and frame of a sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in May.

Smith and about 19 others gathered in the Met that June morning to stand in solidarity with Joanna Smith and Tim Martin, the activists charged.

“Bringing the climate emergency to people’s attention should be something society rewards, not tries to punish to such an extreme degree,” said Shayok Mukhopadhyay, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion NYC who helped organize the protest.

The group stood before “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen”—a bronze statue similar to the same wax sculpture for which Joanna Smith and Martin now face up to 10 years in prison—with their hands colored in red marker and their lips covered with black tape. White words were stamped on the tape: “HEAT,” “WILDLIFE,” “FIRES,” “DEATH.” Georgia Smith's lips read, “FAMINE.”

What’s the Purpose of Art in a Global Crisis?

Climate protestors say they are taking to major museums, in part, because these cultural institutions aren’t telling these stories. In fact, museums like the American Museum of Natural History and Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum have been pressured in recent years to cut the funding they receive from fossil fuel companies, the greatest contributors to global carbon pollution.

“The function of art is for people to be able to understand the world that they live in and reflect on the human condition, but big art isn’t fulfilling that function,” Mukhopadhyay said. “That’s the reason for us to be in museums: to tell people that we are in the middle of an emergency, and it is the time now for you to face that emergency.”

Climate change is also itself a threat to art: Leading cultural institutions, the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, outlined in a June report the need for “immediate action” to address climate change given how it threatens cultural heritage sites, art collections, and institutions.

Museums, however, say these protests are attacks on priceless artworks. “We unequivocally denounce this physical attack on one of our works of art,” said National Gallery of Art Director Kaywin Feldman in a statement after Joanna and Martin threw paint at the “Little Dancer” exhibit.

However, Favianna Rodriguez, an artist and climate justice activist, supports these organizers. As the president of The Center for Cultural Power, which uses art to inspire action on societal issues, Rodriguez views the protests themselves as a form of art. “Protest is like theater,” she said. “It’s the creation of a counter-narrative.”

She hopes the protesters can bring more optimism and solutions into their actions. She also wants to see participants take an intersectional approach to climate protests and call out the museums for the ways they’ve historically exploited communities of color. She notes that the marginalized groups most likely to be impacted by climate change are often the most misrepresented in major museums.

“A lot of these museums are holding things that were stolen during colonization—sacred, sacred objects,” Rodrigeuz said. “These places are not just contested by climate activists. There’s been a lot of contestation around their collections, how they’ve collected, and what kind of point of view they have shown.”

Will These Protests Make a Difference?

Miranda Massie, founder and director of the Climate Museum, isn’t worried about her institution being protested next. “If museums want to protect themselves against these interventions, then they can do that very effectively by actively engaging with the climate crisis in their programming,” she said.

She supports the activists and is frustrated by the bad press surrounding their actions; Massie worries this coverage may alienate the general public.

One survey published in November of last year suggested public support of climate protests may dip after demonstrations such as pretending to deface art. A larger set of data suggest the art museum protests might be an effective call to action, though it’s too early to tell.

Dylan Bugden, an assistant professor of environmental sociology at Washington State University, researches the way people interpret social movements. Every movement is different, which creates challenges for making generalized statements, but Bugden’s findings have shown that peaceful, nonviolent protests can resonate with people who believe in climate change. He’s not sure that would be the case with something as disruptive as throwing soup in a museum, but he doesn’t believe such actions would cause harm, either.

“When we talk about climate change activism and social movement strategy, what really matters is not a one-off protest event and catching people’s attention here and there,” Bugden said. “It’s building grassroots activism and organizations that can mobilize people to vote, to protest, to take action. Building that kind of coalition is what it will take to do something about climate change.”

[nanika-akimoto]

Two activists from campaign group Just Stop Oil were arrested  after throwing tomato soup on Vincent Van Gogh’s famous “Sunflowers” painting, which hangs in the National Gallery in London. The protesters then glued themselves to the wall next to the painting. “What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people? The cost of living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis, fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup,” one activist said. (via Just Stop Oil van Gogh Tote Bag by Nanika-akimoto)

[mr-michael-kyle]

A pair of activists on Sunday doused a Claude Monet painting in a German museum to protest climate change. The 2 activists from the group Last Generation could be seen in a video throwing a thick substance over Monet’s "Les Meules" at Potsdam’s Barberini Museum, then gluing their hands to the wall below the painting. The group later confirmed that the combination was mashed potatoes. "We make this #Monet the state and the public the audience," the group later tweeted together with a video of the incident. "If it takes a painting – with #MashedPotatoes or #TomatoSoup thrown at it – to make society remember that the fossil fuel course is killing us all: Then we'll give you #MashedPotatoes on a painting!" Climate change activists vandalizing a painting to bring awareness to climate change. (Letzte Generation) In total, 4 individuals had been involved in the incident, according to German news agency dpa. ANTI-OIL ENVIRONMENTALISTS POUR TOMATO SOUP ON VAN GOGH ‘SUNFLOWERS’ PAINTING The Barberini Museum stated later Sunday that because the painting was enclosed in glass, the mashed potatoes did not cause any harm. The painting, a part of Monet's "Haystacks" collection, is anticipated to be back on display on Wednesday. "While I understand the activists' urgent concern in the face of the climate catastrophe, I am shocked by the means with which they are trying to lend weight to their demands," museum director Ortrud Westheider mentioned in a press release. Police informed dpa that they had responded to the incident. Last Generation tweeted later Sunday that the activists, "Mirjam and Benjamin," have been taken to jail without further details. After throwing mashed potatoes onto the painting, the climate change activists glued their hand to the wall. (Letzte Generation) The Monet painting is the most recent artwork in a museum to be targeted by climate activists to attract attention to global warming. The British group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" in London's National Gallery earlier this month. Just Stop Oil activists additionally glued themselves to the frame of an early copy of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" at London's Royal Academy of Arts and to John Constable's "The Hay Wain" in the National Gallery. The Associated Press contributed to this report. &nbsp; &nbsp;Source: German climate change activists splash mashed potatoes on Monet painting

[omgbyte]

Oil protesters appear in court after throwing soup at Van Gogh painting

Oil protesters appear in court after throwing soup at Van Gogh painting

The climate activists who threw soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s famous “Sunflowers” painting on Saturday appeared in a London court on charges of criminal damages, several outlets reported. The two women were protesting as part of the campaign group Just Stop Oil, and they pleaded not guilty at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court during two brief hearings. After dumping two cans of tomato soup over…

[2wq7]

Oil protesters appear in court after throwing soup at Van Gogh paintin..

Oil protesters appear in court after throwing soup at Van Gogh paintin.. Oil protesters appear in court after throwing soup at Van Gogh painting  CNBCVincent Van Gogh "Sunflowers" painting defaced by protesters  CBS ChicagoBig Oil heiress funding ‘Just Stop Oil’ group that threw soup on Van Gogh painting  Fox NewsPair in court accused of cri..

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[ladlesnsoup]

Not that I don't enjoy a good soup but this energy really could've gone to i don't know writing a book about assassinating an oil baron. They got attention for the climate crisis but it isn't good attention. This just makes climate activism look rude and inconveniences the museum (plus the painting is behind glass anyway).

[jhamazamnews-blog]

Two women charged after soup thrown over Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting | Ents & Arts News

Two women charged after soup thrown over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting | Ents & Arts News

Two women have been charged with criminal damage after climate change protesters threw tomato soup over Van Gogh’s famous Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery. Footage posted by the Just Stop Oil campaign group showed activists opening two Heinz tins and then throwing the contents over the 1888 work on Friday morning, before kneeling down in front of the masterpiece and gluing their hands…