On January 1997, artist Alexander Brener walked up to Kazimir Malevich’s ‘White Suprematist Cross’ and sprayed a green dollar sign right onto the canvas. This action earned him a five-month prison sentence.

Brener’s act was a critique on western museums as “art businesses”. Like Brener, artist Babi Badalov also expressed his criticisms of capitalism within the art world. On the wall is a banner by Badalov with the words “activism”, “akseeonism” and “aukseaonism” [activism, actionism, and “auctionism”]. With his own (visual) language, Badalov visualizes how activism gets commercialized.

Left : Babi Badalov, ‘Untitled’, 2021.
Right : Kazimir Malevich, ‘White Suprematist Cross’, 1920–1921. Now on view at the museum.