Leave the Soup at Home: Galleries Crack Down Amidst Continuous Environmental Protests
By Millie Barker
Just Stop Oil protestors sit in front of a soup covered Sunflowers, National Gallery, London.
Image courtesy of ArtNet.
‘What is worth more, art or life?’—these powerful words rang loud and clear at London’s National Gallery as two environmental activists threw a can of tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, 1888, in 2022. In the last two years this phrase has continued to reverberate as further environmental demonstrations have occurred in museums across the globe. However, this new stage for environmental protests may be curtailed after the National Museum Directors’ Council’s (NMDC) open letter calling for ceasefire.
The soup and sunflower protest , initiated by the environmental group Just Stop Oil (JSO), occurred alongside sit-down demonstrations in Central London demanding an end to use of fossil fuels. In turn, it sparked a series of demonstrations at the National Gallery, which included activists glueing themselves to John Constable’s The Hay Wain, 1821, and using hammers against Diego Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus, 1647-1651, a work famously slashed by suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914 .
Protestors cover Picasso's Motherhood (La Maternité), 1901, with an image of a Palestinian mother and child.
Image courtesy of Youth Demand.
The two most recent gallery-centred protests occurred on 27 September—just hours after JSO activists from the 2022 sunflower protest were sentenced to prison—and on 9 October when Youth Demand briefly covered Pablo Picasso’s Motherhood (La Maternité), 1901, with a photograph of a Palestinian mother and child.
The latest series of protests within museums provoked the NMDC’s open letter, published 11 October. The letter highlighted the ‘enormous distress’ and disruption to staff and visitors alike, whilst calling for a ceasefire in the UK, so public, cultural spaces may maintain their reputation as a sanctuary, ‘provid[ing] light and solace to all.’ Additionally, the National Gallery doubled down on security measures, banning all liquids from the museum beginning 18 October and promoting more meticulous bag checks. In a statement released by the National Gallery, they reiterated the necessity of these measures in order to preserve and protect the art on its walls for future generations.
In response to the NDMC’s letter, a spokesperson from JSO referenced the recent destruction caused by Hurricane Helene and the danger it posed to the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg , Florida. Further, JSO and Youth Demand replied with an open letter of their own, in which they promised to ‘leave the soup at home’, whilst highlighting the necessity of their protests to break the illusion that everything is fine, along with encouraging institutions to confront their climate and sustainability related responsibilities head-on. Indeed, these measures against climate protestors are occurring against a background of extreme weather and natural disasters driven by climate change. Moreover, fine art insurance rates are skyrocketing due to risks posed by climate change and galleries are increasingly faced with difficult discussions concerning the future of their art.
Thus, one must reflect on whether a can of soup is really the greatest threat the art in our galleries face. Furthermore, do these new security measures deny the history of protest that surrounds our art, such as the complex history surrounding Velasquez’s Rokeby Venus?
Whatever your opinion, just ensure you don’t pack soup for lunch the next time you visit the National Gallery.
Bibliography
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