A Petition Against the War Waged by the Russian State in Ukraine 

We, artists and representatives of the field of art related to higher education, call for an immediate end to Russia’s unprovoked war of choice against Ukraine.  We express our solidarity with Ukraine and condemn President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. Putin does not recognize the right of Ukraine to exist and demands that it be absorbed within Russia (or more precisely, absorbed under Putin’s diktat), much as what has happened in highly repressive Belorussia.

We, the undersigned, denounce Putin’s stand for aggression, dictatorship and police state. We support the Ukrainian people’s right to be free from Russian aggression and staged violence.  We call for all museums, galleries, art fairs, auction houses and all those related to the world of art to drop ties with those people who support Putin and who reap the benefits of that support – including those who have amassed their wealth in the corrupt privatization of public assets following the fall of the Soviet Union. We ask all art-related organizations, public and private, to disclose and sever ties, financial and non-financial, with Russian entities and individuals. Artists should refuse to sell their work to supporters and beneficiaries of the Putin regime, and decline all participation in exhibitions and programs in organizations created or controlled by such people. 

Cultural producers should protest participation in any events organized or funded by supporters of the Putin regime.  The international community needs to call for an end to freeports, anonymous selling and bidding in art auctions, and other art world loopholes that allow for the use of art for money laundering of Russian wealth. 

Democratic values are under attack. We must stand with the people of Ukraine in their fight for self-determination.

Marta Kuzma, Professor of Art, Yale School of Art

Carol Becker, Professor of the Arts, Columbia University School of the Arts

Andrea Fraser, Artist, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studio, UCLA School of Arts and Architecture, UCLA

Bruce Hainley, Professor, Rice University 

Thomas Lawson, Faculty, School of Art, California Institute of Art

Ken Lum, Artist, University of Pennsylvania

Jessica Stockholder, Artist, Professor, University of Chicago

Lorraine Wild, Faculty, School of Art, California Institute of Art