That the opening day of Arco was news for the aggression of the photographer and journalist Ruth Toledano to the criticism of art Marisol Salanova, and not for the quality of her proposals or the expectation awakened among the respectable, is bleak. It’s not … The first time an art critic must face the artist’s fury. Back in 1879, the English critic John Ruskin wrote about the work of the American painter James M. Whistler, sentenceing that his ‘Night in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’ painting was like throwing a painting cube, not only on the fabric, but on the public’s face.
Whistler, angry, demanded that he retract. Ruskin refused to.
The history of art appears curdled with fierce criticisms (also of pharragosa condescension, but we will talk about that on another occasion). Picasso did not fight (his works were qualified as Satanic or schizophrenic), nor monet (of his picture ‘Printing. Romantiente’ wrote the art critic Louis Leroy that “the preliminary sketch for the pattern of a tapestry paper would be better finished than this marine landscape”), nor Cézanne (of whom Marc de Montifaud said that he gave the impression of being a kind of a state of delirium tremens »).
The support to Salanova does not arrive and perhaps that is a good symptom: for Urtasun, culture is trench and, for her, quite the opposite
The picturesque thing of this case is that the anger of Toledo (and its misplaced reaction) were not as an artist affront by the ruthless critic but of a spouse of victim for published information: Salanova had written on these pages about the more than questionable management at the head of the Cnio de María Blasco, a couple of Toledo.
Thus, Ruth Toledano seemed to him that the contemporary art fair held in Madrid, one of the most important in the international circuit, was the perfect framework to assault and threaten a journalist for doing his job. And perhaps, when choosing space (never for exercising violence), he was not right: the reason for that article by Marisol was precisely the diversion of funds for the research against cancer for the purchase of works of art and, among the things that scratched criticism was that his wife, because of his fault, “had lost the cnium.”
“I am the woman of María Blasco, you got with her, she lost the cnio and you are going to pay it,” he shouted, Salanova had to sound like that “Hello, my name is Íñigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare yourself to die”, but without swords.
As far as I know, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, has not spoken about it. Yes he did it quickly, showing all his support, when last year the humorist Jaime Caravaca was assaulted for comments made on social networks. And also when actress Itziar iTuño received strong criticism after demonstrating for Etarras prisoners.
However now, when an art critic is attacked at an art fair by an artist, and for the mere fact of doing his job, it does not seem that the field of art is his competence or deserves his attention.
The support to Salanova does not arrive and perhaps that is a good symptom: for Urtasun, culture is trench and, for her, quite the opposite. That is why he does not plan to give up his freedom of expression or critical thinking in the exercise of his profession. And so, with that gesture, with its resistance, culture wins and we all win.
#Rebeca #Argudo #Ruth #Montoya #ready #die
