A painting of a Black man with an American flag draped over his head at the Houston Museum of African American Culture was intentionally damaged by a visitor last month, museum officials announced this week.
The painting, “Man in the Garden,” was part of a 10-week exhibition called “Eden” by the artist Clarence Heyward. The show, which depicted Black figures with green skin, explored themes of identity, environment and self-definition through “striking portraiture and layered symbolism.” It closed on June 6.
According to John Guess Jr., the museum’s chief executive emeritus and exhibition curator, the episode occurred on May 21 when two young white men dressed in black and carrying a bag entered the museum.
“They took something like a screwdriver or some scissors, and they scraped across part of the painting, and put a hole” in it, Guess said in a phone interview, estimating the damage at about $4,500.
The piece, which measures 4 feet by 4 feet, is valued at $23,000.
Heyward said in a statement to The New York Times that he was disappointed to learn the work had been damaged but was more interested in what that act revealed.
“Art has long been a space where social tensions become visible, and moments like this raise important questions about why certain images, narratives and perspectives provoke strong reactions,” he said. “The physical object was harmed, but the ideas at the center of the work remain intact.”
Before damaging Heyward’s painting, Guess said, the men had visited another exhibition at the museum, of work by the artist Kandy G. Lopez, who is also Black. There, they asked someone to take a picture of them giving the middle finger to one of Lopez’s works.
“These guys came in to do damage to a place that recognizes Black achievement and accomplishment but that also serves as a place of dialogue for people,” Guess said. “I think that they didn’t want any part of dialogue.”
A spokeswoman for the Houston Police Department said a museum official had filed a report the day after the episode. The matter is being investigated, she said, and no arrests have been made.
Security cameras were not operating properly the day of the incident, Guess said, and the museum had put in a work order the day before to have them repaired.
Each year, more than 50,000 people visit the Houston Museum of African American Culture, where admission is free. The museum’s mission is to collect the material and intellectual culture of Africans and African Americans both in Houston and across the African diaspora.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Guess linked the vandalism to bigotry in Houston.
“If we’re honest about it, this is a very racist town,” he said. “This town itself has some serious issues. We’re demographically diverse, but we remain segregated.”
The museum initially removed the painting to have it repaired but later decided to display it — with the damage — on the last day of the exhibition.
“I was just reminded of Emmett Till’s mother saying, I want an open casket,” Guess said. “We want people to know that this happens here.”
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