Schaefer had barely added the orange-and-yellow depiction of fire shooting from the roof of a Chase Bank branch when police rolled up to the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Sylvan Street on July 30. “They told me that somebody had called and said they felt threatened by my painting,” Schaefer said. “They said they had to find out my intention. They asked if I was a terrorist and was I going to follow through and do what I was painting.”
via latimes.com. thx, charles
12 Comments
Yeah, I mean why paint it if you’re not going to do it, right? I recently painted a version of Caravaggio’s ‘Judith Beheading Holofernes’ and guess what — that fucker is _dead_!
The police should ask. It is a great painting but it is not “normal” and I can understand why people walking by would be puzzled by what he is depicting.
I think that it is on purpose and he is courting the controversy. The painters I know all paint in their studios from reference material. The “artists” that paint outside are in nature or sucking in tourists at the park.
America, land of the free?
Thanks Victor for clearing up for all of us where painters paint.
Your welcome!
if there were an emoticon for one slapping oneself in the face, this would be where I would use it
This is yet another example of how freedom has been chipped away at since 9/11, in the name of security. I don’t every recall a story of an artist or photographer being questioned about their intentions while working on the street, pre 9/11. The most that every happened was they’d ask if you had a permit.
Could Robert Frank shoot “The Americans” today? Or would he be stopped and questioned every time he raised his camera to his eye?
Frank was stopped by police, held, interrogated and finger printed in 1955 while shooting “The Americans”. They wanted to know if he was a “communist” and why the Guggenheim Foundation were giving him money.
He was also jailed overnight earlier in the trip after being stopped by police because the used car he had bought for the trip still had the old plate in the trunk besides the new plates he had attached after buying the car.
Victor, thanks for that bit of history. I guess America hasn’t changed that much after all.
That’s a really odd way of getting PR for an exhibit.
I just read the article and I have to say that I agree with you. It seems these days it is about the controversy versus true human interest and art. I would have to say after seeing the painting I would bother to see his show especially knowing the “metaphorical”message.
Thank goodness Schaefer wasn’t painting in the Cubist style (or god forbid, Dali) – I can’t imagine what the reaction would have been !
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