No. 16 / 20 · Movements, by Gastón Solís
Occupied
the girl with the dripping heart
Pictures on Walls · London · 2003

A late addition. The collection had been closed for over a decade when this piece entered it, and I had not intended to revisit the matter. The only art present in this piece, as I see it, is what is happening behind the door. The image on the door is made with a stencil and spray paint — a sheet of plastic with holes cut in it, and an aerosol can with a button. The can had been designed by engineers in Pennsylvania. The pigment had been formulated by chemists in Düsseldorf. The propellant had been measured by a machine. The painter pushed a button.
Button pushing will never produce art, and the button pusher will never be an artist. This is not art, no matter how clever the idea or how good the execution.
Provenance
Stencilled to the outside of a women’s restroom stall door at Bristol Central Library, College Green, Bristol, c. 2003; documented in situ by the Bristol Evening Post, 12 May 2004; authenticated, 2010; removed during the building’s refurbishment, 2017, the stall door cut from its frame as a single panel; sold at Sotheby’s London, Contemporary Art Evening Auction, 28 June 2018, lot 142; the sale publicly disavowed by the artist; private collection, Doha, 2018—. The present piece is one of a signed edition of fifty published by Pictures on Walls, London, 2004; acquired through a Madrid dealer, 2019.



















