Sally Hickson – The Conversation

Police officers patrol the entrance of the Tate Modern gallery, in London, Oct. 15, 2022, after climate protesters threw soup over glass covering Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ in London’s National Gallery. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

November 3, 2022

Eco‑activist attacks on museum artwork ask us to figure out what we value

Sally Hickson, University of Guelph

Climate protesters are destabilizing the idea that public galleries are safe spaces for works of art, held in public trust.

‘Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family,’ Swabian artist, c. 1470, and a picture showing a fly on U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence during the Oct. 7 debate at University of Utah in Salt Lake City. (Wikimedia Commons/AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

October 9, 2020

Mike Pence’s fly: From Renaissance portraits to Salvador Dalí, artists used flies to make a point about appearances

Sally Hickson, University of Guelph

Flies have long held symbolic meaning in the history of art. In portraits made in Renaissance Europe, the presence of a fly symbolizes the transience of human life.

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