A descendant of one of Australia’s most famous artists has defended a museum’s decision to acquire an object linked to a spray paint attack on one of her ancestor’s best-known paintings. Her comments come against a backdrop of criticism, levelled against the museum by several prominent politicians.
In January 2023, two protestors entered the Art Gallery of Western Australia and stencilled the logo of global energy company Woodside onto Frederick McCubbin’s 1889 masterpiece, Down on his luck. The protest was motivated by the piece of 50,000-year-old Indigenous rock art on the Burrup Peninsula, which protestors believed was placed at risk by Woodside’s industrial activity on coastal Western Australia.
Down on his luck was undamaged in the attack, thanks to the acrylic glass that had only recently been installed into its frame. In July 2023, the WA Museum Boola Bardip asked the Art Gallery of Western Australia if it could have the acrylic sheet, complete with Woodside logo, for its collection of social artefacts. The gallery agreed.
Perhaps surprisingly, the artist Frederick McCubbin’s great granddaughter Margot Edwards loudly supported the museum’s acquisition of the protest artefact. “It is the museum’s job to collect material significant to our state’s cultural life,” Edwards said.
"As an act of protest drawing attention to the impacts of the expansion of fossil fuel extraction in our northwest, on the priceless ancient Indigenous cultural heritage of the Burrup Peninsula, the Perspex on McCubbin’s painting was an effective palette for this radical protest."
Edwards’ comments follow less positive statements made by politicians in October this year, when the museum was slammed for “glorifying” the protestors’ attack on Australia’s patrimony. Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti likened the move to the government keeping its vandalised railway carriages. Liberal leader Libby Mettam said the acrylic should be disposed of.
Premier Roger Cook was less combative, commenting that he fully supported the museum’s independence and right to decide.
Edwards, meanwhile, said the Murujuga rock art on the Burrup Peninsula had to be saved. “It is a timeless museum and a massive art gallery, sadly now unprotected from the toxic emissions on its doorstep,” she told The Art Newspaper. “Such was its impact on me, I have taken every opportunity to write to environment ministers about its protection since visiting there in 1993.
“It is the largest collection of ancient Aboriginal art on the planet, recording the story of their daily life and cultural practices, painted eons before McCubbin painted Down on his luck. But the impact of a tiny amount of spray paint emission on a piece of perspex in an art gallery in Perth is in no way comparable to the impacts the toxic emissions from Woodside’s Burrup Hub are having at Murujuga.”
WA Museum Boola Bardip CEO Alec Coles said in a statement: “Like any public cultural institution, the Museum documents the issues and events that affect our society.
“Amongst our collections we have items from protests over many years, covering Aboriginal land rights, environmental protests, women’s rights, LBGTQI+ rights and many other issues,” Coles said.
“The acquisition of the Perspex does not indicate the WA Museum’s support for the cause, but merely its recording of the event. In fact, unsurprisingly, we condemn the targeting of cultural institutions for such protests which risk damage to public collections and inconveniencing visitors.”
The woman who spray-painted Down on his luck, climate activist and ceramicist Joana Partyka, has been fined.