One of Mark Rothko’s Seagram murals was vandalised yesterday by a visitor to Tate Modern. The 1958 painting Black on Maroon, which was donated to Tate by Rothko shortly before he committed suicide in 1970, was scrawled with black ink in one corner. The incident was seen by one gallery visitor, Tim Wright, who posted a picture of the defaced painting on Twitter.
In a statement yesterday, Tate Modern said: “Tate can confirm that at 15.25 this afternoon [Sunday] there was an incident at Tate Modern in which a visitor defaced one of Rothko’s Seagram murals by applying a small area of black paint with a brush to the painting. The police are currently investigating the incident.”
The graffiti appears to include the name ‘Vladimir’ and the words “a potential piece of yellowism.” An online manifesto describes Yellowism as an art movement run by Vladimir Umanets and Marcin Lodyga.
Speaking on the phone to The Guardian on Sunday night, a man who identified himself as Vladimir Umanets, said he was responsible for the incident. He also said he did not believe he had acted criminally, that he admired Rothko, and compared himself to Marcel Duchamp.
He told The Guardian: “I didn’t destroy the picture. I did not steal anything. There was a lot of stuff like this before. Marcel Duchamp signed things that were not made by him.”
