G erard Jan van Bladeren who had previously attacked Barnett Newman's Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue in 1986 struck again, this time slashing the 8x18 foot Cathedra with a carpet knife.

Mr Van Bladeren described as a frustrated artist who told authorities he 'didn't hate all art, just abstract art and realism'[1], returned to the Stedelijk Museum in search of Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III which wasn't on show at the time . Apparently believing that he and Newman had finished the work in collaboration and that the restoration was not right. He failed to find the object of his desire and turned instead to Cathedra, slashing it accross it's entire width.

In his Review of Dario Gamboni's book "The Destruction of Art" Gary Schwartz quotes Van Bladeren from a pamphlet he was handing out after the event "When I destroyed [Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III] I was nature, reacting against vicious ideologies, and when it was destroyed and I began to destroy myself (my own abstract canvases), nature was involved again.

"To all Netherlanders and to anyone who still/already understands it, from the worst Fascist ever (Musashi). Where I live, in Buitenveldert, everything is always quiet. Little crime, no junkies, everything nice and neat, but, watch out ...! Appearances are deceiving. If you have a sensitive nature, you can recognize the vibrations of Jews and Japanese who in their little flats are scheming about world hegemony and who for all anyone knows, perhaps without realizing it themselves, are preparing a new Holocaust.

"....Was bothered by guilt about what fascists are capable of committing, also had to think of Who's Afraid, destroyed by a Dutch samurai and had to think of Jews who were chopped to pieces by Japanese with samurai swords and thinking of my own destroyed abstract canvases."[2]

This was the third attack on a Newman work. As mentioned earlier Van Bladeren first attacked Newman's Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III in 1986. Ironically, in a totally seperate attack four years prior to this, in 1982 a veterinary medicine student also attacked a Newman Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV.

After the considerable controversy that surrounded the restoration of the previously damaged work, it was decided that Cathedra would be restored onsite. Over 4 years later in 2002 restoration was completed and the work was hung behind plexiglass and remained viewable only from a walkway.

 

1.Slashed Painting Returns:
The New York Times 01/04/02

2. The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution
Gary Schwartz
Art in America. Issue: July, 1998
Review of Dario Gamboni's book

 

Newman 'Cathedra' Slashed at Stedelijk
Stephanie Cash, in Art in America, January 1998, p.27.

Restored, but Still Blue
CAROL VOGEL. January 4, 2002