George Lindemann Journal by George Lindemann - "Artists Donate Works for Legal Defense of Man Who Smashed Ai Weiwei Vase" @nytimes by NICK MADIGAN
MIAMI — A few dozen artists have promised to donate works for an auction to help cover the legal expenses of a colleague who stunned the art world by smashing a vase by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
The mustering of support for their fellow artist, Maximo Caminero, who has been charged with criminal mischief and could face up to five years in prison if convicted, includes a defense of the intellectual underpinnings of his action. “We do not support the act, but we support the intention,” said Danilo Gonzalez, a painter and sculptor who said he spoke for many of his fellow artists.
While Mr. Caminero’s purpose, as he initially expressed it shortly after breaking the vase on Feb. 16, was to draw attention to a dearth of exhibition space for local artists in Miami’s museums, he has since said that he was driven more by a spontaneous impulse to emulate Mr. Ai’s own destruction of vases, some thousands of years old.
In an interview, Mr. Caminero said he had acted from a sense of solidarity with Mr. Ai, a dissident who has been under pressure from the Beijing authorities for his political activities and is barred from leaving China. Mr. Caminero said he did not realize until later that the vase, painted over in bright green by Mr. Wei, dated from the Han dynasty.
“I was in shock,” Mr. Caminero said. “He could have made replicas.”
Reached at his studio in Beijing, Mr. Ai said he had received an apology from Mr. Caminero but was unimpressed.
“My only advice is that he should make sure next time he knows — or have someone tell him — what he’s going to break,” Mr. Ai said. “He thinks it’s from Home Depot?”
Some artists accuse Mr. Ai of hypocrisy for taking that view. The Chinese artist, they point out, has made a show of not only painting over exquisite ancient vases but of smashing some of them to pieces.
“On the one hand, it is a clear act of vandalism,” the Ukrainian-born artist Alexey Steele, based in Los Angeles, said on Friday of the Pérez Museum incident. “On another, painting on a historic vase is a clear act of vandalism, too.”
While Mr. Ai has defaced works to make new art, one difference is that, unlike Mr. Caminero, he owned the art before he ruined it.
In his emailed apology, Mr. Caminero told Mr. Wei that he shared the Chinese artist’s battles “as though they were my own.”
“Breaking the vase signifies breaking the chains that prevent you from leaving the prison in which you find yourself,” Mr. Caminero wrote. “You were the vase in my hands, and I was the silent voice of the artists of Miami.”
However divided they might be on the advisability of Mr. Caminero’s act, Miami artists clearly see it as an opportunity for a debate about their situation. “Prominent intellectuals” were planning to discuss the cultural impact of the work’s destruction at a news conference late Friday in Miami’s Wynwood arts district, an announcement from organizers said.
Nick MadiganMaximo CamineroEmilio Martinez, a 32-year-old Miami-based artist from Honduras who is helping to plan the auction, said he had pledges from 35 to 40 artists — including some from Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela — for donations of works and that six more had already turned some in. He said he expected the sale to take place in three or four weeks.
Mr. Martinez called Mr. Caminero’s action “heroic.” Asked what his reaction would have been if Mr. Caminero had destroyed one of Mr. Martinez’s own paintings, he said it would not have bothered him, provided that it was an “unselfish, altruistic act” driven by a “humanitarian” ethos.
Another local artist, Elsa Roberto, said she supported Mr. Caminero’s act “in concept” but not in execution. She added that various ideas were “floating around” to help seize the moment on behalf of Miami artists, including placing vases on the steps of every museum in the area.
The Pérez Museum has pointed out that its schedule already includes exhibitions of local artists’ work, which it describes as “part of the museum’s long legacy of working with the local creative community.”
A show of works by the Miami-based, Haitian-born artist Edouard Duval-Carrié is planned for March 13 to Aug. 31, and an exhibition devoted to the artist Adler Guerrier, also from Miami, opens on Oct. 30. “Americana,” a series of exhibitions at the Pérez through May 1, 2015, includes work by the local artists José Bedia, Naomi Fisher, Lynne Golob Gelfman and Frances Trombly.
Mr. Ai’s plight, meanwhile, continues to draw attention: At the Armory Show, a fair that opens on Thursday on Piers 92 and 94 in New York, a booth set up by the For-Site Foundation of San Francisco will feature a large bicycle similar to one he keeps chained outside his Beijing studio to remind people that he is not free to leave the country. The foundation is also working with him on a major installation at Alcatraz prison, scheduled for September.
A spokeswoman for Cheryl Haines, the executive director of For-Site, said it does not plan to line up extra security at its booth.
A version of this article appears in print on 03/01/2014, on page C1 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Miami Artists Rally Around Colleague Who Smashed a Star’s Vase.
George Lindemann Journal by George Lindemann - "Artists Donate Works for Legal Defense of Man Who Smashed Ai Weiwei Vase" @nytimes by NICK MADIGAN
George Lindemann, George-Lindemann, George Lindemann Jr, George-Lindemann-Jr, Lindemann, Lindemann George, Lindemann George Jr, George Lindemann Junior, Jr George Lindemann, Lindemann Jr George, George L Lindemann, https://www.facebook.com/pages/George-Lindemann/284564361662689, https://www.facebook.com/pages/George-Lindemann-Jr/284564361662689, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lindemann, www.forbes.com/profile/george-lindemann, www.nova.edu/alumni/profiles/george_lindemann.html, http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/celebrity-business/investors/george-lindemann-net-worth, www.linkedin.com/pub/george-lindemann/b/945/78a, www.linkedin.com/pub/george-lindemann-jr/b/945/78a, www.georgelindemann.com, www.georgelindemann.posthaven.com