MoMA drops Jaeger and happycorp

On Friday, MoMA severed all ties with happycorp and its founder Doug Jaeger after his involvement in the vandalism of the museum's Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street subway station installation—an exhibit he and his shop were paid to create.

On February 10, New York's Museum of Modern Art and happycorp unveiled a campaign that replaced ads in the Brooklyn station with posters of art from the museum's permanent collection. Less than two weeks later, the installation was vandalized in the style of ad remix artist Poster Boy. On Saturday, February 21 at 2 a.m., the art posters were cut, rearranged and affixed with new images to create such mash-ups as Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe with clunky gray headgear and a race car diving into Monet's water lily pond. There was also a 3D neon box inside cut-up MoMA signage, which resembles the work of street artist Aakash Nihalani.

By the following Tuesday, New York magazine published a story in which Jaeger recounts his role in the vandalism with a member of the Poster Boy collective. After the Poster Boy finished modifying the posters, Jaeger tells New York he staged a fashion shoot with a professional photographer and models in front of the vandalized posters, and that he hopes to eventually sell those photos.

Jaeger, who was not available for comment on this story, later told Gothamist: "I was in the subway that night for sure. It was clear to me that night that Poster Boy is not one person. I think that NYMag makes it sound like I know them—I met them, but I don't know them."

MoMA denies any involvement with the stunt.

"We ended all work to be done by Doug Jaeger and thehappycorpglobal on this project and all others, and have completely severed our relationship with the company," says Kim Mitchell, MoMA's director of communications, advertising and graphics, in a statement. "The museum deplores any kind of vandalism and is profoundly distressed that the posters were defaced. The images that were damaged have been replaced."

Jaeger also served on the museum's marketing advisory committee with the likes of Paula Scher, Gerry Graf and 2x4 cofounder Michael Rock. He was recently inducted as president of the Art Director Club. The ADC was also not available for comment.