The Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) announced on Monday, June 8, that a museum visitor intentionally damaged one of its paintings on May 21. The damage included a puncture and large cut or scrape in a painting by North Carolina artist Clarence Heyward called Man in the Garden, part of the EDEN exhibition in the downstairs gallery.
HMAAC CEO Emeritus and exhibition curator John Guess Jr. held a press conference at the museum on Tuesday, June 9, and said the vandalism was representative of continued bigoted attitudes in Houston.
"If we're honest about it, this is a very racist town," he said. "We're the fourth-most economically segregated city in the country. Houston has the highest poverty rate of any of the 25 metropolitan cities. And no one talks about that.This town itself has some serious issues. We're demographically diverse, but we remain segregated."
According to Guess, two young white men entered the museum carrying a large bag. They visited an exhibition of Kandy G. Lopez's work upstairs, where they asked a staff member to take a picture of them in front of a painting. When the staff member obliged, the two men made an obscene gesture at the work.
Later, they briefly went downstair to the Heyward exhibit before quickly leaving. Afterwards, staff discovered the defacement. Unfortunately, the museum's cameras had malfunctioned the day before the attack, and a work order to repair them was placed hours before the suspects arrived.
HMAAC says they have filed a report with HPD, but have not yet heard of any movement in the case. This incident is the first time that HMAAC has had a work defaced, though there have been previous incidences of threats against the museum in its logbook. A man also showed up at the museum in the past with a Bible claiming that God had told him to take vengeance on the museum, though he was removed before he caused any damage.
After initially taking the painting down to start reconstruction, the museum said they returned it on the wall to illustrate the damage. Guess compared leaving the marred painting up to the mother of Emmett Till's mother insisting on an open casket funeral after her son was abducted and lynched. The exhibition ended Saturday.
Heyward's painting highlights one of his signature techniques of portraying Black people, specifically his family members, with green skin. In his artist statement, the Brooklyn-born Heyward describes the techniques as linking skin tone to the cinematic process of green screening, where green backgrounds are used to project computer-generated new realities. "This provides an alternative entry into the conversation of existing while Black in America," he said in the statement.
HMAAC vowed to continue displaying works by Black artists despite the vandalism.
"Our immediate priority is supporting the artist and ensuring the proper restoration of the work,'" said CEO Davinia Reed in a statement. "At the same time, we remain committed to presenting exhibitions that encourage learning, reflection, and dialogue. Acts intended to intimidate, censor, or damage cultural expression will not deter us from our mission."
