A close descendant of the acclaimed artist Frederick McCubbin has come out in support of the Western Australian Museum after it came under fire over an unusual acquisition.
The museum confirmed this week it had acquired the perspex glass protecting one of McCubbin’s most famous paintings, Down on His Luck, from the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The perspex was spray painted with the Woodside logo by protesters in January last year.
The defacement was carried out by Disrupt Burrup Hub to draw attention to Woodside’s operations on the Burrup Peninsula, which the group says are desecrating sacred Murujuga rock art believed to be among the oldest rock carvings in the world.
On Thursday, McCubbin’s great-granddaughter Margot Edwards said she supported the museum’s decision to acquire the perspex.
“It is the museum’s job to collect material significant to our state’s cultural life,” she told Guardian Australia.
“As an act of protest drawing attention to the impacts of the expansion of fossil fuel extraction in our north-west on the priceless ancient Indigenous cultural heritage of the Burrup Peninsula, the perspex on McCubbin’s painting was an effective palette for this radical protest.”
Both Edwards and McCubbin’s great-great-grandchild Ned Reilly came out in support of the protesters’ actions last year, telling Guardian Australia it was a “clever protest” McCubbin would have approved of which had “opened an important conversation”. The painting itself was not damaged during the protest.
The museum’s executive director, Alec Coles, told Guardian Australia on Thursday the acquisition of the perspex glass did not constitute museum support for the Disrupt Burrup Hub cause.
“We condemn the vandalising of cultural institutions and cultural collections, because those collections belong to the public, and they’re held in perpetuity,” he said. “But we are documenting things that happen in our society, major events, mundane events. That’s what we do.
“We’ve got 8 million items in our collections and amongst those there are a small number of items that relate to protests, whether it’s Noonkanbah, whether it’s protesting against the Vietnam draft, whether it’s conflicting views on the plebiscite on gay marriage. These are issues we need to document.”
The protester who led the act of defacement on the McCubbin work, Joana Partyka, claimed victory on social media, posting a video and photos of herself visiting the perspex at the museum on Wednesday.
“It’s hard to put into words exactly how it feels that this thing has become an accidental cultural artefact,” the artist says in the video.
“I’m so grateful to the WA Museum for recognising the historical significance of the perspex as an extension of the DBH campaign and its significance.”
Partyka, who was fined $2,500 and ordered to pay the gallery $5,000 in costs, both of which were paid using crowdsourcing, told Guardian Australia she had received nothing but support for her actions on social media.
“But I would say it’s unexpected that some people get their knickers in a twist over these kinds of things,” she said.
A statement by the Nationals WA leader, Shane Love, said he was “absolutely appalled” by the acquisition, “which is nothing short of glorifying criminal vandalism”.
“Significant police and court resources were used to deal with this case, and now we see a state government entity effectively endorsing this kind of behaviour by putting it on display,” the statement said, going on to call on the Cook government to review the museum’s procurement processes as a matter of priority.
At a transport press conference on Thursday, the deputy premier, Rita Saffioti, said she did not accept the museum’s justification that it was merely preserving history.
“We don’t keep the carriages that people have graffitied … we clean the graffiti off because it’s illegal behaviour,” she said.
“I can’t direct museum directors, but it would be something that I would not do.”
The premier, Roger Cook, has not responded to the Guardian’s request for comment.
Coles said there were no plans to display the object, and it had been acquired from the Art Gallery of Western Australia at no expense to the public.
“A staff member carried it the 30 metres across the Cultural Centre from our sister institution in their lunch break,” he said, adding the item would be available upon request to researchers of environmental activism in the 2020s.
Coles said Woodside – a major sponsor of the museum and funder of its education centre, the Woodside Learning Studios – had been supportive of the decision to acquire the perspex.
“They’re extremely sympathetic to our position,” he said. “They know that we’re just doing the job of a contemporary museum.
“This is absolutely not about Woodside, and we will continue to work productively with them.”
Woodside said it was satisfied with the museum’s statement that the acquisition was not an indication of the museum’s support for the protest action, and noted it had condemned the targeting of cultural institutions for such protests.
“Woodside condemns unlawful acts that are intended to threaten, harm, intimidate or disrupt our employees or any other member of the community going about their daily lives,” the Woodside statement said.
“We believe these actions should be met with the full force of the law.
“Woodside fully supports respectful debate, including in relation to complex challenges like climate change.”
