Welcome to Minket 👋🏿
My name is Morkeh, and I strive to connect the world, one trivia puzzle at a time.
For those of you who are new or need a refresher, here are the rules:
Each puzzle will contain clues that are linked in some way.
To complete the puzzle, solve the individual clues and the link.
Send your answers to minketapp@gmail.com. I’ll shout out the first ten people who solve the puzzle correctly in the next puzzle.
Answers will be revealed on Minket's website next Monday.
Learn something new and have fun 🧠
If you prefer listening to the puzzles, find Minket on your favorite podcast platform.
It began as an ordinary day in November 1997 in Amsterdam. Weather records from that time depict a cool yet clear morning.
At the Stedelijk Museum, nestled in the renowned Museumplein district, visitors admired the art. Among them, a tall, brown-haired man blended in with the crowd. He searched for something specific, driven by a troubling purpose.
Someone at the Stedelijk should have noticed him, but likely enough time had passed since he was last there. Discovering that the Holy Grail of his discontent was absent, he focused on a substitute.
In his grip, a small Stanley knife. He struck seven times with deliberate motions: five long slashes, followed by two shorter ones, before ceasing. Pamphlets from his possession scattered to the floor as he leaned against a wall, awaiting the authorities.
The attack reverberated through the gallery. The crime scene was secured, and first aid began. The cuts were clean, but recovery would be complicated.
The target of his attack was not a person but a painting.
On a similar autumn day in 2021, I was in the Stedelijk, where a museum guide introduced me to a particular work.
This piece, a vast blue surface with two vertical stripes (or "zips," as the artist called them), spans five meters in width and two and a half meters in height. Its name, Cathedra (1951), derives from the Greek term for a distinguished seat.
At first, I asked myself, "What's the big deal?" I was encouraged to look at the piece closer and take the color in.
As I peered inside the painting, it viewed my insides.
Cathedra's construction in the color field technique includes a symphony of blues, reds, yellows, greens, and blacks with multiple layers of oil and finished with a layer of acrylic.
The white and green-like zips serve as focal points into the deeper layers, revealing an oceanic depth beyond its surface.
The artwork bears scars from its violent encounter, meticulously restored over four years using surgical sutures and orthodontic wire. This intimate encounter with Cathedra offered a glimpse into its present and history, altered by time and circumstance.
Barnett Newman, a latecomer to the art scene, traversed various roles — from teacher to art critic — before fully embracing his artistic calling amid the post-war era's uncertainty and opportunity in the 1940s-1950s New York City.
Born Baruch Newman to Polish-Jewish immigrants, he envisioned a rebirth of the world following the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust, advocating for a return to simplicity without the restrictions of past artistic dogma.
A proponent of Abstract Expressionism, Newman found creative kinship with peers like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. His art, he believed, served as portals to the mystical, using his imagination to search for the essential truths of life that could both comfort and disturb.
Cathedra was not Gerard Jan van Bladeren's first attack on a Newman canvas.
In 1986, he defaced Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III (1967) with eight slashes, leading to a complicated restoration effort. This piece, part of a quartet, elicited strong reactions for its intense red hue among Stedelijk's visitors.
The reaction to van Bladeren's action was surprisingly mixed. He received praise for doing what many others would have wanted to do. Think of what it takes to prevent us from throwing coffee on a work we may dislike.
Following a five-month incarceration, van Bladeren, thwarted in his intent to re-attack Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III after restoration, targeted Cathedra instead. His subsequent trial resulted in being deemed mentally unfit to stand trial and psychiatric commitment.
So, what motivated van Bladeren's actions?
Making sense of the world is baked into how the brain receives, processes, and molds information. Not to speak on van Bladeren's psychiatric predicaments, but primary psychotic disorders, like schizophrenia, are associated with cognitive and perceptual domain impairments, like visual and motion processing and object recognition. Some of these deficits can be seen in non-psychotic disorders, too. These changes can be highly distressing to those who may have these disorders. However, one may be unsettled by how they take in and interpret the piece.
Could it be an escape from the power of all-consuming color?
Newman's canvases, including the Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue series and Cathedra, are immersive and overwhelming. A reprieve is hard to find. Even the zips in the pieces are meant to concentrate the experience.
Could these pieces be part of a larger critique to destroy unsatisfactory art?
Van Bladeren, an artist himself, considered his desecrations art of his own right—meta work exposing his displeasure with the original. After the attack on Cathedra, he stated during an interview, "I don't hate all art; I just hate abstract art and realism."
Perhaps, at its core, his actions stemmed from a simple truth: he really disliked the paintings.
Please don’t try at your local museum.
What Link Connects:
The Holy Grail
Simplicity
Coffee
Sounds | Words | Visuals
- This puzzle was created to the sounds of Fefe Na Efe by Tic-Tac and Tony Tetuila. Classic Ghana-Naija collab.
- If you want more about the Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III attack and the subsequent restoration drama, the 99% Invisible podcast has a great episode and The End of Fear is a documentary based on the saga.
- This very satisfying domino video must be watched from start to finish (Reddit).
A Moment of Reflection
What piece of art creates a visceral reaction for you?
Thank you for reading. Until next time. -M