Last Monday, two women targeted Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde (1866) and drew the words ‘Me Too’ on the painting’s protective glass pane. French-Luxembourgish performance artist Deborah de Robertis claims to have arranged the stint as part of her performance work Don’t Separate the Woman from the Artist.
Courbet’s painting is on loan to the Centre Pompidou-Metz from the Musée d’Orsay as part of the ongoing show, Lacan, the Exhibition. Four other works were also marked, while Anette Messager’s I Think Before I Suck (1991) was stolen. De Robertis claimed on her Instagram that the work is now in her possession.
In a statement, de Robertis explains the action means to emphasise the ‘misogynistic divide’ in the art world. ‘I call on all women, with or without vulvas, all intersex, trans and non-binary people, and all underrepresented people – whether artists, assistants or interns in the art world – to dare to express yourself.’
