I made this copy of Velázquez's Rokeby Venus today as a prop for my performance that will take place this Friday at the ICA's 'Women Should Be In Charge Event". I will be slashing it in honour of the suffragette Mary Richardson who took a meat cleaver to the original at the National Gallery (details below).
SUFFRAGETTE OUTRAGE
Rokeby Venus slashed with a chopper
Sequel to Mrs. Pankhurst's rearrest
Rokeby Venus slashed with a chopper
Sequel to Mrs. Pankhurst's rearrest
Wednesday March 11, 1914
At the National Gallery, yesterday morning, the famous Rokeby Venus, the Velasquez picture which eight years ago was bought for the nation by public subscription for £45,000, was seriously damaged by a militant suffragist connected with the Women's Social and Political Union. The immediate occasion of the outrage was the rearrest of Mrs Pankhurst at Glasgow on Monday.
Yesterday was a public day at the National Gallery. The woman, producing a meat chopper from her muff or cloak, smashed the glass of the picture, and rained blows upon the back of the Venus. A police officer was at the door of the room, and a gallery attendant also heard the smashing of the glass. They rushed towards the woman, but before they could seize her she had made seven cuts in the canvas.