Detail of Rothko's Black on Maroon
lawyer David Clark, who is defending 26-year-old Wlodzimierz Umaniec, described his client as “articulate and pleasant” during Wednesday's hearing at Camberwell Magistrate's Court, London, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Umaniec, who addressed the court via a video link-up from a police station in Peckham, South London, has been charged with causing criminal damage in the region of 5000 pounds.
On Sunday 7 October, the unemployed Pole strolled into the Tate Modern Gallery and scrawled over Rothko's Black on Maroon, a painting that has an estimated value of 50 million pounds.
Using black ink, and a method of spelling more commonly used for transliterating Russian names, he wrote: “Vladimir Umaniec a potential piece of Yellowism.”
The 26-year-old is claiming that his actions were artistic and carried out in the name of 'Yellowism', a movement which Umaniec's professes to be the co-creator of.
Yesterday, Berlin-based Marcin Lodyga, co-founder of the so-called Yellowist movement, defended his colleague's actions.
“He didn’t do it for his fame,” he told New York based art blog Animal.
“He did this for the idea of Yellowism, to show people that Yellowism exists.”
Although Umaniec did not use any yellow paint, the movement aims at transforming perceived meaning by “changing the substance of the object into pure expression of the yellow colour,” according to Lodyga.
“Vladimir made a small scandal but only to show the power of the context and that the context exists," he added, mysteriously.
Meanwhile, defence lawyer David Clark says “maybe a cynical viewer would say that he might even welcome [a day in court].”
Umaniec, who had previously been living in a squat, will make a second application for bail on 16 October. (nh/pg)