National Gallery

Youth Demand supporters paste bloodied Gazan parent and child onto Picasso’s ‘Motherhood’

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Youth Demand cover Picasso's 'Motherhood' at the National Gallery 9 September 2024. They are demanding an arms embargo of Israel by UK government.
Youth Demand cover Picasso’s ‘Motherhood’ at the National Gallery 9 September 2024. They are demanding an arms embargo of Israel by UK government.

Two supporters of Youth Demand have pasted a photo of a Gazan mother and child over a Picasso masterpiece at the National Gallery today to demand a two-way arms embargo on Israel.

At noon today the pair covered the protective glass cover of Pablo Picasso’s 1901 painting ‘Motherhood (La Maternité) with a photograph of a Gazan mother clutching her child. They then poured red paint on the gallery floor. Youth Demand is calling for a two-way arms embargo on Israel and for the new UK government to halt all new oil and gas licences granted since 2021.

The image used was taken by Palestinian journalist Ali Jadallah and shows a distressed and bloodied pair, coated in debris. His caption for it reads: “A mom holds [her] injured child after an Israeli attack, as Israeli airstrikes continue on twelfth day, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City”. Israeli bombing raids in Palestine have killed at least 41,870 people, including 16,765 children, in the last year and since the photograph was taken in 2023, Al-Shifa hospital has been completely destroyed by the IDF.

One of those taking action today was Jai Halai, 23, an NHS worker from London who said

“I’m taking action with Youth Demand because at this point it’s been over one year of seeing my colleagues in the healthcare field decimated. Decimated by bombs, by bullets and by having to operate, with no medical equipment, on starved children. 

“We need a two way arms embargo on Israel now; 87% of the British public want this and never before have they been more disillusioned with our Government and political class who do not represent us. We need a revolution in our democracy.

“Direct action is what gave us our rights and is the only way to move us towards proper justice. Civil resistance is our duty as young people: to defend those without a voice today and to defend our futures. It’s time to take to the streets; bring on the revolution!”

Also taking action today was Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, 21, a Politics and International Relations student at Greenwich, London who said:

“I’m taking action because as a jew, I feel like it’s my duty to call out the genocide being committed in Gaza. I want the world to know this isn’t in the jewish name and I want to see a free Palestine. When Keir Starmer says Britain stands with Israel he’s wrong. We know very well that this is a genocide, not “self defense” and we as the people of Britain say enough is enough.”

Around 2,000 people in Lebanon of all ages have also been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the last year, on top of the death toll in Gaza and the West Bank. Missiles have also been launched at Iran on numerous occasions. 

A Youth Demand spokesperson today said

“Our government is arming Israel to carry out a genocide against Palestinians and killing without restrain in Lebanon. It can’t be all carrots and no sticks: a two-way arms embargo is the least Britain can do to stop displacement, destruction and death! Young people will continue to resist genocide-as-usual“

Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted "I support Zionism without qualification." He's asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Continue ReadingYouth Demand supporters paste bloodied Gazan parent and child onto Picasso’s ‘Motherhood’

Two paintings souped as Just Stop Oil supporters sentenced

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Just Stop Oil second occasion of souping Van Gogh at the National Gallery 27 Sept 2024.
Just Stop Oil second occasion of souping Van Gogh at the National Gallery 27 Sept 2024. Image by JSO.

Just Stop Oil supporters have thrown soup over two of Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers paintings at the National Gallery in London in a sign of defiance after the original soup throwers, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were imprisoned for up to two years at Southwark Crown Court today. Just Stop Oil is demanding that governments work together to establish a fossil fuel treaty, to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.

At around 2:30pm, three supporters of Just Stop Oil entered the Van Gogh ‘Poets and Lovers’ exhibition at the National Gallery and proceeded to throw Heinz vegetable soup over two Van Gogh masterpieces:  ‘Sunflowers’ 1889 and ‘Sunflowers’ 1888. The latter was splashed with soup by Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland in 2022.

Taking off jackets they revealed Just Stop Oil t-shirts and spoke to the assembled crowds. Referring to the 25 Just stop Oil supporters now in prison, Phil Green announced: ” Future generations will regard these prisoners of conscience to be on the right side of history.”

Subsequently Ludi Simpson said: “We will be held accountable for our actions today, and we will face the full force of the law. When will the fossil fuel executives and the politicians they’ve bought be held accountable for the criminal damage that they are imposing on every living thing?”

Just Stop Oil second occasion of souping Van Gogh at the National Gallery 27 Sept 2024. Image by JSO.
Just Stop Oil second occasion of souping Van Gogh at the National Gallery 27 Sept 2024. Image by JSO.

One of those taking action today is Phil Green, 24, a community worker from Cornwall who said:

“Whilst deadly flooding, food shortages and extreme heat wreak havoc around the world, the state is choosing to focus energy on prosecuting ordinary people with the harshest sentences. Future generations will see those who stood up against suffering, genocide and greed as heroes and our reckless governments as the real criminals.”

Also taking action today is Ludi Simpson, 71, a retired Professor from Bradford, who said

“My action is from the heart and the head. I know politicians can do the right thing if they listen to the facts, but their inaction is burning up our lives. Is it too much to ask for a safe future? Soup on sunflowers is a splash of protest. The treasured pictures remain unharmed.  What is harming our future is the criminal greed of the fossil fuel economy. Our government can choose to end it now.”

Mary Patricia Somerville, 77, a grandmother from Bradford who was also taking action today said:

“I am more and more frightened that we’re running out of time to save humanity from extinction. We desperately need an international Fossil Fuel Treaty to prevent this from happening in the lifetime of my grandchildren.  Harvey, aged 8, told me his plans for when he grows up. ‘I’d like to write musicals,’ he said,  ‘but with climate change  I might be dead.’ “

Just Stop Oil supporters throw soup on Van Gogh artwork again

Continue ReadingTwo paintings souped as Just Stop Oil supporters sentenced