Mark Rothko

I like Mark Rothko's paintings - don't ask me why, I just do - one minute they can be joyous and uplifting, the next very dark, sombre and disturbing.

But I was sad to hear the other day that some attention seeking asshole - Vladimir Umanets - who moved from Russia to London several years ago - attacked one of Rothko's works in the Tate Modern Gallery.

The idiot Umanets daubed an inane message on the famous painting 'Black on Maroon' - one of the so-called Seagram Murals originally commissioned for display in The Four Seasons restaurant in New York.

Mark Rothko was a strange guy to whom artistic fame and success came rather late in life.

For years Rothko struggled to find his muse, but went on to produce some of the most powerful abstract paintings the world has ever seen - before committing suicide in 1970 at the age of 66.

Rothko was a member of the Communist Party during the period of the McCarthy Witch Hunts in America - which was not the country's finest hour.

Meanwhile Vladimir Unmanets has been arrested and sounds like he should be thrown out of the country once the courts are finished with him.

Mad Vlad told The Times newspaper:

“I didn’t expect that when I came to the Tate Modern I’d see Mark Rothko in this special room,” he said. “I said this is a perfect choice, he’s such (sic) powerful, everyone knows Mark Rohtko is a f****** genius, he expresses his emotions so well. So I decided that’s the thing I want to put in the context of yellowism.

I don’t want to be treated as a vandal or a destroyer. I’m not a crazy man. My intentions were absolutely not to destroy the piece, to decrease its value, to do something bad”.

Ah yes, I can hear the sound of men in white coats arriving - any minute now.