Aretha Franklin Mural Vandalized Days After Detroit Exhibit Debuted
London-based artist Richard Wilson spent Saturday fixing up his Eastern Market mural depicting an Aretha Franklin album cover after the piece was discovered with globs of paint dripping down the Queen of Soul’s face, and canisters littered the ground beneath it.
Wilson, who started painting in 1985, said he’s in Detroit for the annual Murals in the Market public art event and has spent 12 days completing his piece depicting a rack of vinyl albums that show off classic Detroit artists, including Franklin. The piece is on the rear of the Gratiot Central Market adjacent to the now-closed Busy Bee Hardware store.
“I finished it yesterday (Sept. 28) evening… all happy,” he said. “I came back this morning just to tidy up a bit, check if there’s anything I missed or anything.”
Wilson said it appears someone climbed up into the raised basket of a cherry picker, stole two tubs of spray paint he was storing overnight and chucked a load of black paint over the mural.
“It’s like they had a paint party here, and it’s just splattered all over the place.”
Storing paint inside the basket of a cherry picker is normal practice for the mural artists, Wilson said, adding that normally they keep the machine’s arm raised so that no one can get into the supplies.
“They’ve almost had to like tightrope up it… which is a lot of length to go to,” he said, explaining how they would’ve had to climb up the machine’s arm. “You’d be hard pushed to make this kind of mess, especially if you’re stealing stuff you want to be a little bit, I would imagine, inconspicuous, but no…”
Wilson said the Franklin portion of the painting got the brunt of the damage, but added that he doesn’t think anyone was trying to send a message pointed at the artist.
“The machine happened to be parked where the J Dilla album and Aretha album (are),” he said. “I think if the machine was parked somewhere else, that part of wall would have got the treatment, it just happened to be it was parked there.”
Incidentally, the mural is located right next to a Gratiot Central Market surveillance camera. A market employee told the Free Press on Saturday evening that their manager is in the process of reviewing the footage.
Wilson said he’s also waiting to learn more from the footage, but added that he did spot some “painty footprints walking away.”
Until then, Wilson said he’s focused on getting the painting back to how it was — before he heads back home to London.
“It’s frustrating because it’s a lot of work,” he said. “That particular cover of Aretha that I painted was quite challenging…and it took me a while.”
Nonetheless, Wilson said he hopes the piece remains in Eastern Market paying homage to Detroit music for a while.
“Music and vinyl and things like that, especially these particular records are something I’m really passionate about, it’s music that I listen to. This music, it’s soul music, hip-hop, house music, jazz…”
