It’s not what you think.
On October 14, 2022, in Room 43 of the National Gallery in London, at approximately 11:00am, protesters threw tomato soup at a Van Gogh painting of sunflowers. It drenched the glass that protects the painting, something the protesters took into account before embarking on Tomato-gate. Pronounced “tō-mäʹ-tō-gāt.”
In retaliation, I have thrown paint at a can of tomato soup in a world that does not exist. My soup is pronounced “tō-māʹ-tō.” There is no “-gate” extension, of course, because that would be silly.
See image above. Share it. People will think you’re funny.
Reciting lines, as though in a play, the protesters declaimed, “‘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?”
They wore T-shirts that read Just Stop Oil, which is the name of the organization. Those T-shirts were designed, presumably, by a T-shirt artist somewhere. They were likely shipped to London for the affair, using fuel made out of oil.
They didn’t use Campbell’s Tomato Soup, as Andy Warhol (that’s another story in the news) so famously did. They were partial to Heinz. They could have easily saved 40p on a store brand, or at least on a brand that offered locally sourced organic tomatoes to reduce the fuel and pesticide usage that harms the environment. It takes oil to deliver soup from points far and wide, let alone process it, can it, label it, and put it in shipping containers and trucks.
And of course, in a followup, on October 23, two German youth activists from Letzte Generation (The Last Generation) threw mashed potatoes on Monet’s Les Meules (Haystacks). In both instances, after the food fling, the protesters superglued their hands to the walls beneath the paintings.
Potato, po-tah-to, tomato, to-mah-to…
Unfortunately, they believe that this is the way to effect change. Yes, people are talking about it. But no, not one person has changed a stance based on vine-ripened tomatoes on museum-quality glass. All they’ve done is manage to create a situation in which those who lobby for climate change are equated with soup-throwers—at best, childish vandals, and at worst, daffy anarchists.
I, too, have changed zero minds about climate change based on my completely fabricated image. Nor did I use any fossil fuel, except that which provided the electricity powering my laptop and the various servers out there stealing my image for their own nefarious purposes. My soup and my paint are entirely imaginary. The people who created the images are correctly and thoroughly credited, but it’s not real.
Here’s why this story is important, and it has only a tangential relationship to solving the climate change emergency.
When these kids thought of the most pervasively elitist, inordinately expensive, and best-loved icons of the 1%, the first thing that came to mind was art. A similar painting in this series of Van Gogh works dedicated to everyday things sold in 1987 for $39.1 million. By simple inflation, that would be about $102.2 million today. As these paintings are scarce by nature, it might be worth twice that.
And even though entry to the National Gallery is free, making it among the most accessible of all the arts, these people believe art to be the currency of the 1%. Why?
We’ve talked a lot about this subject. Feel free to peruse any of the several articles that discuss elitism in the arts. Click on the image below to read an example of the result of toxic donations.
Usually, we speak of toxic donors and other issues of elitist nonprofit arts organizations. We’ve discussed that in order to foster the kind of community that cleaves together (rather than one that continues to cleave apart), kowtowing to the rich and famous has only put nonprofit arts organizations, in particular, in a no-win situation whereby donors donate so that donors benefit.
This, however, is even worse. If groups of climate activists feel comfortable with the idea of destroying art, it is because they equate art with the same oil companies (and other sin sources) that have kept your nonprofit arts organization afloat lo these many years.
Art may be for everyone, but large arts organizations are playgrounds for the rich.
Note: there is a story going around that this whole affair is a psyops campaign, trying to turn people against those who want to end climate change by creating a play, of sorts, that shows climate protesters to be buffoons. While that makes more sense than what actually happened, I have no definitive proof, nor has anyone provided it, either online or through direct contact. If you have proof (and not just the “I heard that…” kind of proof that the former president seemed to relish), please let everyone know in the comments.
Just some tomato soup for thought.
Based in Kirkland, Washington, Alan Harrison is a writer and speaker specializing in nonprofit organizations, strategy, the arts, and life politics. His columns appear regularly in major publications. Contact him directly at alan@501c3.guru.
If you’re feeling generous or inspired, just click on the coffee cup above. You don’t have to, of course, but if you can afford it and find some value here, please provide the desperate need for caffeine.
Alan is always looking for good opportunities to write and consult for nonprofits that need a hand. And, of course, that elusive Perfect Opportunity™.
The National Gallery missed a great opportunity of their own in their response to the Van Gogh ala soup. They should have simply removed the painting for cleaning and replaced the title card with one listing the two ‘activists’ as artists, gotten their birth month and year included, and declare their action as a piece of performance art and left them glued to the wall. Now this is probably too contemporary a piece for such an august institution but…