Purr: Who Is Afraid of Blue

'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III' was bought by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1969 to introduce abstract American art in The Netherlands. People seemed to either love it or hate it. Reactions varied from being overwhelmed by the painting to being furious about the fact that such a plain piece of paint on a canvas was shown at a renowned museum. One of the haters turned its thoughts into action in 1986. Outraged and frightened by the artwork, he slashed it a number of times with a utility knife. The vandal himself saw abstract art as 'a plague' and thought he did a good thing by destroying it. “I made it into a masterpiece”, he actually stated. The museum called it murder. The painting had to be restored, which would take three years.