Just Stop Oil’s Iconoclasm: Provocative Protest and Necessary Activism

For the past two years, a group of climate activists called Just Stop Oil have made headlines by either throwing soup cans or gluing themselves onto important artworks across Western museums. Everything from Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh to Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer has not been safe from their iconoclastic antics, the act of striking well-known images to incite the public’s reactions. The group does all this to demand the British government, and other governments across the world, to stop licensing all new oil, gas, and coal projects—all in order to significantly reduce humanity’s carbon footprint and stop climate change.

Just Stop Oil climate protesters at the National Gallery in London in front of Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh, where they had thrown a can of soup. Image courtesy of The Guardian.

However, far from garnering the support they so desperately need, their move has angered the global public. People have also called them delusional for worrying about climate damage that is bound to happen in thirty years by defacing art today. What the general public is failing to notice is that these protests are actually far more concerted and calculated than they appear to be.

Just Stop Oil climate protesters at the National Gallery in London in front of The Toilet of Venus (The Rokeby Venus) by Diego Velázquez that they had struck with emergency rescue hammers. Image courtesy of The Independent.

In The Week in Art podcast, presented by The Art Newspaper, Just Stop Oil spokesperson Emma Brown outlined how, before every protest, their group ensures that they understand that their protest will bring no real harm to the artworks. All the artworks they have targeted are protected by thick glass, meaning no soup nor glue would ever actually reach the painting’s surface. Their goal is to ensure that their protests are harmless stunts that focus on exposing where the world’s government’s priorities lie when it comes to taking concrete action against climate change. This is why their work is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Climate Action.

That being said, out of a lack of government accountability, the group has conducted a more risqué protest. At the end of 2023, they took rescue hammers to the protective glass of The Toilet of Venus (The Rokeby Venus) by Diego Velázquez, a painting which resides in the National Gallery in London. The move was made to echo a similar protest made by suffragette Mary Richardson, who in March 1914 slashed the exact same painting. “Politics is failing us. It failed women in 1914 and it is failing us now. New oil and gas will kill millions. If we love art, if we love life, if we love our families we must Just Stop Oil,” stated the group. True to their word of harming no artworks, the painting went back on display after just four weeks, with no apparent damage done.

Just Stop Oil climate protesters at the Royal Academy of Art in London in front of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci where they had spray painted the wall space under the painting. Image courtesy of The Central News Network (CNN).

Just Stop Oil protests have also inspired other groups to protest in a similar manner, albeit for different causes. In January 2024, Riposte Alimentaire, a group fighting against food insecurity, threw another can of soup at the Mona Lisa. Where again, no real harm had been done to the painting. Real harm, however, had been brought onto these groups of activists. In May 2024, BBC News reported that a proposal from the government’s adviser on political violence threatens to ban Just Stop Oil in the same way that terrorist organizations are.

Just Stop Oil climate protesters at the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague in front of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer that they had attempted to glue themselves to. Image courtesy of The Guardian.

In December 2023, the London Metropolitan Police had also stated that they had spent over GBP 20 million policing Just Stop Oil protests. Far from making progress in reducing the global oil footprint on the planet, the group has only increasingly faced harsher and harsher crackdowns from governments, a move that hopefully will soon be mediated for the future of the planet.

Find out more about museum protests by Just Stop Oil and their other initiatives by checking their Instagram on @just.stopoil.