Degas’s ‘Little Dancer’ Enclosure Gets Smeared In Paint By Protesters
Photo 88738013 © Nuthawut Somsuk | Dreamstime.com
Post-pandemic, museums have seen an unusual type of tourist stream in to interact with their art: environmental activists. These groups have painted their grievances on the vicinities of works by Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Johannes Vermeer, and many more to drive awareness about climate change and pressure governments to stop enabling the mining of fossil fuels.
The latest to get caught up in these affairs is Edgar Degas’s famous La petite danseuse de quatorze ans (Little Dancer of Fourteen Years). On Thursday, two protesters took to the wax sculpture’s location at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and smeared red and black paint on the 19th-century work’s plexiglass case and pedestal with their hands.
In footage published by the Washington Post, one of the campaigners is seen smacking black paint onto the enclosure and then apologizing to audibly shocked bystanders, before continuing to slap more paint onto the glass.
Protesters smeared paint on the case and pedestal of Edgar Degas’s “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” sculpture in the National Gallery of Art in D.C. to bring attention to the climate crisis and demand that President Biden declare a climate emergency. https://t.co/FWiuFqJzId pic.twitter.com/8AQkeIWlQH
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 27, 2023
The pair then sat on the floor with their stained palms facing up.
“We need our leaders to take serious action, to tell us the truth about what is happening with the climate,” announced one of them.
Depicting a teen ballerina, the figure’s young age seemingly struck a chord with the activists, who identified themselves as parents.
“We are adults; we should be at home working,” said the other protester. “I have a job that requires health and safety, but I can’t do my job unless I have a government that does their job in looking out for the health and safety of our children.”
Following the stunt, Declare Emergency, the anti-oil group claiming to have backed the activation, shared on Instagram: “Today, through nonviolent rebellion, we temporarily sullied a piece of art to evoke the real children whose suffering is guaranteed if the death-cult fossil fuel companies keep removing new coal, oil, and gas from the ground.”
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“This little dancer is protected in her climate-controlled box, but people, animals, and ecosystems struggling and dying in extreme weather events are not,” the organization elaborated.
The group called upon Joe Biden’s Administration to “marshal all necessary resources,” cease all drilling permits, and declare a state of climate emergency.
National Gallery of Art director Kaywin Feldman tells The Hill that the institution “unequivocally denounce[s] this physical attack” on the artwork.
The sculpture was subsequently moved from view so themuseum’s conservation team could evaluate its damage. The enclosure is also pending investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
