In 1986, allegedly distressed by the work’s abstract nature, a confused man slashed with a box cutter Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III, installed in its gallery of honor at the Stedelijk Museum. It was not the first time a Newman work was vandalized. In 1982, for similar reasons, a student attacked Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV in the national gallery of Berlin. Nine years later, the man who had damaged Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III returned to inflict five long knife cuts on Newman’s Cathedra. Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III goes on view for the first time in the reopened Stedelijk on April 24.

Regie/montage: Geert van de Wetering
Camera: Marl Lindenberg
Geluid: Steven van Dijk
Productie: Submarine