The Critic Who Accidentally Smashed a $19,000 Glass Sculpture at an Art Fair Says It Was ‘Devoid of Artistic Attributes’ Anyway

The
controversial Mexican art critic who was blamed for smashing a $19,000 glass sculpture at an
art fair earlier this month is doubling down on her claim that
she’s not responsible for the work’s spectacular destruction.

Avelina Lésper, an outspoken critic of what she
calls the “fraud” of contemporary art, says that artist Gabriel
Rico’s 2018 work, Nimble and Sinister Tricks (to be
preserved without scandal and corruption), which exploded at the Zona Maco art fair
as she delivered her negative critique, was an accident waiting to
happen because of its flawed construction.

“Experts tell me that poorly tempered and
poorly cut glass can break spontaneously at any time,” she wrote in
her blog last week. “If safety glass does not
withstand minimal contact… when cleaning or moving it, it was going
to break.” 

Rico’s found-object assemblage,
which included a football, a rock, a knife, and a feather suspended
in a tall sheet of clear glass inside a metal framework, was the
centerpiece of the Mexico City-based Galería OMR’s stand. 

“I found it devoid of artistic
attributes,” Lésper writes of the work.

During the fair, Artnet News reported that the critic placed an
empty Coke can on the sculpture to take a mocking photograph.
But Lésper now says she made
no contact with the sculpture. “Without touching it, the glass
imploded, disintegrated into pieces,” she writes.

An image posted on social media
appears to show the moment before the catastrophe. She argues
that the work could be remade without much difficulty.

The
artist, whose work was included in the 2019 Venice Biennale’s main
exhibition, has decided against remaking the sculpture, however. In
a joint statement, Rico and the OMR gallery say that after lengthy
discussions, “we have come to the conclusion that the artwork has
undergone irreparable damage and cannot be accurately reproduced,
and so the work itself is lost.”

They
decline to speculate what exactly happened at Zona
Maco. But the statement notes that “accidents happen
when situations are exposed to risk, as is the case with Ms.
Lésper’s actions.”

“The
response from our colleagues, collaborators, and friends, as well
as the global arts community and the international media, has been
truly moving,” the statement says. A spokesman for OMR tells Artnet
News that it will not be responding to Lésper’s latest
comments. 

The
artist, who is also represented by Perrotin, presented work at its
booth at Frieze LA last week without any mishaps. Next month, a
solo show of Rico’s assemblages is due to open in Perrotin’s Paris
space.

The post The Critic Who Accidentally Smashed a $19,000 Glass
Sculpture at an Art Fair Says It Was ‘Devoid of Artistic
Attributes’ Anyway appeared first on artnet News.