Vandalism today at the Whitney Museum's Jeff Koons retrospective (photo by and courtesy Laura Higgins Palmer)

Vandalism today at the Whitney Museum's Jeff Koons retrospective (photo past and courtesy Laura Higgins Palmer)

A human being briefly disrupted the Jeff Koons retrospective at the Whitney Museum this afternoon, splashing cherry paint against a wall and signing his name. He did not vandalize whatever artworks.

Palmer's selfie shows the vandal walking by on the right. (photo by Laura Higgins Palmer) (click to enlarge)

Palmer'south selfie in the Koons bunny (photograph past Laura Higgins Palmer) (click to enlarge)

According to artist Laura Higgins Palmer, who alerted Hyperallergic to the intervention, the man threw cherry-red paint against the wall in a gallery on the third floor. Palmer said she was taking a selfie of her reflection in 1 of Koons's silver bunnies when she noticed a human being walking by with a black bag. When she turned around, a man was splashing pigment on the wall, in what appears to be a kind of double Ten shape, although information technology could also be a human figure with arms and legs spread. The human managed to sign his name in marker underneath earlier beingness led away past security. Palmer says everyone was and then evacuated from the third flooring so that the wall could exist repainted.

"I am a painter, same age as Koons, but my work is almost painterly aesthetics, non in-your-face up conceptualism," she wrote to us over text message. "I am completely at peace with Koons, actually enjoyed the show, and also can fully sympathize with the guy's frustrations."

Koons does take a knack for riling people up, and it seems likely that this was some kind of publicity stunt past an creative person who feels overlooked. Unfortunately, information technology wasn't fully successful considering nosotros can't actually identify him from his signature. Can you?

Hyperallergic reached out to the Whitney Museum, which offered the following argument:

An isolated act of vandalism occurred this afternoon at the Whitney Museum of American Art involving a blank gallery wall on the tertiary floor of the Jeff Koons exhibition. No artwork was affected or damaged in any manner. Guards quickly apprehended the individual responsible. The police were called and they removed the individual from the museum. Post-obit standard security protocol, the third floor of the museum was closed briefly and reopened inside ii hours of the incident.

Update, eight/xx, vii:03pm ET: One of our readers has deciphered the name: Monty Cantsin, which, according to Wikipedia, is "a multiple-use name that anyone tin adopt," allegedly invented in 1978 past an creative person named David Zack. "In a philosophy anticipating that of free software and open source, anyone should perform in his name and thus contribute to and participate in his fame and achievements," Wikipedia says. The name is associated with Neoism, which Wikipedia identifies as a kind of subculture of parody and hoaxes; the New York Times calls it "an international anarchist art motion."

Notably, one of the founders of Neoism, and a user of the name Monty Cantsin, is Hungarian-born Canadian performance artist Istvan Kantor — and the man in the Koons photo looks a lot like Kantor. According to articles in the Toronto Star and the New York Times, Kantor likes to brand 10's with his own blood; he'south been banned for doing then on the walls of the Museum of Modern Fine art in New York and a host of other institutions. So, information technology looks like the vandalism at the Whitney is meant to be an X — except information technology was done in blood, non paint.

Update 2, 8/20, seven:08pm ET: We couldn't resist sharing this tweet by a reader:

Screen Shot 2014-08-20 at 7.02.44 PM

Update iii, 8/20, 7:20pm ET: A Twitter commenter, @annakblair, pointed the states to another incident in 2004 when Kantor, co-ordinate to the BBC, "tried to squeeze a sheathing of claret onto Jeff Koons' Michael Jackson and Bubbling sculpture at Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof gallery."

In 2005, Kantor told the Japan Times that the museum distorted the reality of his activity:

Kantor says the museum fed the media the story that he had intended to deface art, specifically the nearby Jeff Koons sculpture "Michael Jackson and Bubbles." Although he vehemently denies this allegation, he does not deny the criminal nature of his actions. "I have always been breaking the rules of art," Kantor said Sunday. "I call myself a "subvertainer" and I consider my criminal activities the most creative role of my piece of work. My fine art was e'er anti-institution and anti-institutional. My mental attitude ever questions what is the relationship between artists and the institutional art earth and the need for institutions. The whole 'Claret Campaign' is basically an ongoing anti-institutional projection."

Update 4, 8/xx, 10:43pm ET: Kantor, via a Facebook account under the proper name Monty Cantsin Amen, wrote the following to a friend of Hyperallergic:

I just came out of mental hospital where the police force took me after the Whitney I was discharged I am free I'll put out my Supreme gift manifesto that I handed to the museum afterward the intervention tomorrow now I get out for a beverage in the lower due east side thanks for your back up Monty

Correction: This article originally stated that the human being photographed in Palmer's selfie was also the vandal. That appears to exist incorrect. It has been updated.

Jillian Steinhauer is a former senior editor of Hyperallergic. She writes largely about the intersection of fine art... More than by Jillian Steinhauer