Alexander Brener

Alexander Davidovich Brener (born 1957, in Alma-Ata, Kazak ASSR, Soviet Union), is a Russian performance artist and a self-described political activist. He is considered one of the main figures of Moscow Actionism along with Oleg Kulik. Work Brener's performances of note include defecating in front of a painting by Vincent van Gogh at the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, having sex in front of the Monument to Alexander Pushkin (Rostov-on-Don), and vandalizing art works by other artists. He was jailed in 1997 for painting a green dollar sign on Kazimir Malevich's painting Suprematisme. In the court case Brener said in his defense: The cross is a symbol of suffering, the dollar sign a symbol of trade and merchandise. On humanitarian grounds are the ideas of Jesus Christ of higher significance than those of the money. What I did was not against the painting. I view my act as a dialogue with Malevich.