The city and community of Sedona lost four significant pieces of public art last month when the Sedona Arts Center tasked a group of high school students working with a SAC summer program to paint over a set of murals that had been on display at SAC since 1999.
The murals were the work of artists Marlys Powell [now Mallet] and Kevin Karnes, winners of the Sedona Mural Project competition, and were unveiled at SAC on Sept. 3, 1999, during the 19th annual members’ exhibition.
The Sedona Mural Project competition was funded by the city of Sedona through the then-Department of Arts and Culture, and as a result, the murals themselves were jointly owned by the city and SAC, according to the agreement between the city and SAC finalized on May 28, 1999.
“The center shall provide for the necessary maintenance in the event the work is vandalized, damaged by weather or otherwise become[s] in need of care or treatment,” the agreement stated. “In the event the city decides to de-accession the art work and remove it from the city’s art collection, the first right of acquisition will be offered to the center … In the event the center decides that it no longer wants the art work or desires that it be removed from the location at the center, the city will be given the first opportunity to purchase the center’s interest in the art work for an agreed-upon sum, or to relocate the art work.”
“I had a message from an artist saying, ‘I think there might be something happening with your murals,’” Mallet said on June 25. “So then I called the Sedona Arts Center and talked to the person at the desk, and he said leave a message on [CEO] Julie [Richard]’s answering machine. So I did. It was a couple more days before she returned it.”
Mallet’s husband Michael Redhawk, who took the call, asked Richard about the overpainting.
“She got a little curt at that point and was like, ‘Because I wanted it done,’” Mallet said.
“I said, well, why didn’t you at least call?” Redhawk said. “The artist’s signature is on there.”
Mallet said she was told SAC tried to take them down, but couldn’t, and painted over them instead.
“Should a three-year resident of Sedona decide that? Should museums and galleries be purged of art over 20 years old?” Mallet asked.
The overpainting was done as part of SAC’s Gallery 928 program, which gives student artists the chance to apprentice with professionals on public art projects.
“This was the third year of the program and the location had been talked about for a few years as a possible place to put a Gallery 928 mural,” Richard said.
“Who on earth — what artist would ever do this?” Mallet said. “But these are just young people who don’t know.”
“It actually is fairly standard practice to paint over murals after a period of time has passed,” Richard said. “We would have approached this year’s Gallery 928 mural location much differently had we been aware of this situation.”
“No one here was aware of the mural’s provenance and artist, or that they were part of the city’s public art collection,” Richard said. “We only knew that they were 25 years old. There was nothing on the wall like a commemorative plaque, or in our files to indicate their history. We keep important historical files at hand to refer to them if necessary. There was nothing in those files about this. Also, there have been many personnel changes over those 25 years, so institutional knowledge was lacking in this case.”
Mallet said she has been a SAC member for over 40 years, “with friends still active at the center, including some who hosted the unveiling ceremony in 1999. There seems to be no excuse for not knowing who painted it.”
“The [new] murals were 90% completed by the time we found out about the issues involved,” Richard said.
Mallet said restoration of the murals might be possible, as the original works were painted in acrylic with an oil-based varnish.
“They were well-preserved and they held up incredibly. So the material was good,” Mallet said. As for the overpainting, “it’s been done so fast it has to be acrylic. Acrylic over oil is taboo, so [restoration] is a possibility.”
Richard said the murals could “potentially” be restored but said that whether they would be was “unknown at this time.”
Following her interaction with Richard, Mallet informed city Arts and Culture Specialist Nancy Lattanzi of the murals’ destruction. Lattanzi declined to discuss the city’s position, deferring questions to City Attorney Kurt Christianson “since this is now in legal hands and there is a plan.”
“The city was unaware of and did not approve of the mural’s removal,” Christianson said, and did not elaborate on the city’s planned action. He declined to comment on Mallet’s rights under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, which provides that the creator of a work of visual art has the right “to prevent any intentional distortion, mutilation or other modification of that work which would be prejudicial to his or her honor or reputation, and any intentional distortion, mutilation or modification of that work is a violation of that right.”
“It’s a blow to the community,” said art collector Claudia Ault, who owns a number of Mallet’s works. “Right now the community doesn’t know.”
“We are determined to show that this incident is an unfortunate exception and we are working on a plan to rectify the situation and to prevent a similar situation in the future,” Richard said. “We are committed to working with the city and Ms. Mallet to resolve this matter.”
In addition to remuneration for the destroyed art, Mallet is requesting a “public apology to her, to [the] city of Sedona, to the artist community and to the population by [the] CEO of Sedona Arts Center and the members of the board of directors who have remained silent,” as well as the creation of a “policy to prevent destruction of art in public places.”
