I have something to tell to the people throwing soup at protection glasses of paintings
First of, why do you attempt against art? Do you really think it's useless and doesn't make any difference? Do you have any idea of how much it costed materially, physically and psycologically to the artists, principally Monet and Van Gogh? For these artists, their artworks were literally their lives. If it wasn't about how art made them feel alive by expressing their most profound feelings, was about how with art, they literally won their daily bread. It was their salary. Art meant so much for them as a way to send a message, to open up minds and challenge an elitist society that found impressionism worthless. They were outcasts.
Mainly for Van Gogh, life was rough. He couldn't even afford food, he only sold one (1) of his many paintings while he was alive, and he had way worse phsycological problems that you could ever imagine to the point he had to be half of his life on a mental hospital. But art held him on the worst times, gave him courage to go on. Even more, he tried anything before art to please his parents, to feel worthy, to make him feel useful, but nothing except art made him feel like he was doing something self satisfactory. Art doesn't have more worth than life, but life without art is meaningless. Art is nothing more than the incarnated manifestation of life experiences.Twelve Sunflowers in a Vase isn't but part of a collection that Van Gogh painted to show how much life was worth living for because society wasn't paying attention to little details that form part of our daily lives and make life beautiful. He was a social activist, and it can be seen that portrayed in many of his paintings. That painting you're attempting to, is the ancestor of the camera your pal was holding. Art makes more concience than soup spilled on a canvas.
Your points are very valid, and I agree with you. The World is at war, hunger and poverty is everywhere and we're on a climate World change crisis. Even more, it's outrageously immoral the prices that these paintings cost today. I think it would be better that these museums were open to the public in general but in the end, there is maintenance staff that live from the salary that the money won generates. But how do you expect to end worldwide hunger when you're wasting food on a multimillion dollar painting? Why do you brag of being against oil when you dye your hair with chemicals and use new printed shirts made out of this oil? How much did it cost the ticket to enter these museums? Why don't you spend that money donating to organizations that urgently need it? If the cans of soup you're throwing at paintings were better donated to home shelters or feeding organizations, people would stop starving. If you're against something, reduce, don't waste, be congruent.
There are other things you can do to stop these problems. There's a peaceful economic sabotage that you can do, way more effective than you think:
Stop buying oil based products like plastic, hair dye, cosmetics, clothing. Go for naturally made things, for artisan made things. You can buy clothing on second hand stores, and you'll reduce the massive clothing production that wastes an amount of water litters and contaminates air, ground and water.
Buy to local sellers. Many products are transported by vehicles like cars, airplanes and ships that use oil fuel and generates high amount of co2. The closer you buy, the better you're helping to reduce oil use. Also, go for public transportation or, if your destination is near, you can walk or use other transportation like bicycles.
Reduce your electricity use and the time you spend online. In the present, the majority of electricity is powered by oil based power centers, and all of Internet data is stored on centers that have to be cooled down by electricity so, the less you stay on social media, the more you will prevent the massive production of unnecessary electricity.
Donate money if you can to organizations that search for other electricity generators that are eco-friendly. Donate old clothing to people that need it, and consume food responsibly so you don't leave leftovers. The food that you get left can be donated as well.
Stop blaming art, and start looking to what artists of the past have to tell you and teach you through their paintings instead. Art is World Culture Patrimony. Start living responsibly and take real action, change your lifestyle, and you'll see how change starts becoming true. If no one uses oil, governments will stop producing it.
I will end this post quoting the russian author Fyodor Dostoievsky: "Beauty will save the World"
And this section of one of the many letters Vincent wrote to his brother Theo:
“What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.”
