Boy Sticks Gum On $1.5 Million Painting At Museum

WFTV-NEWS ^ | 2-28-2006

[TFFKAMM]

The real art is in the writeup next to the painting-----the one that convinces art snobs that they are looking at a work of genius.

This book is all about that very phenomenon.

[Republicanprofessor]

Tom Wolfe's The Painted Word is a great book. Light, amusing and right on.

[Republicanprofessor]

Tom Wolfe's The Painted Word is a great book. Light, amusing and right on.

[Junior_G]

By jove, you're right. That looks like something I absolutely must read.

[beaversmom]

That is a good one. BTW, I'd have to kill the chewing gum boy if he were mine.

[rwfromkansas]

This is comedy.

Art sucks, and this little kid showed us a thing or two about its lack of value.

[rwfromkansas]

That stuff deserves much more than gum stuck on it. Some modern artist needs to crap all over it and call it his art.

[rwfromkansas]

You would have to be a moron to appreciate that.

[Constantine XIII]

Nah, you couldn't do that. Arteests only drink girly, fruity drinks.

They couldn't deal with Mr. Daniels. :P

[rwfromkansas]

Artists need to get off their lazy asses and get real jobs.

At least writers contribute something to society.

[RandallFlagg]

Just what I was wondering.

Didn't his folks teach him about, "Don't TOUCH!!" when he was younger? My 2-year-old knows what THAT means.

[Rembrandt_fan]

Abstract art isn't for everyone, but I like art that makes one strive for understanding and appreciation. And I happen to like Helen Frankenthaler's work. The woman was a genius. Seriously. She had a command of color and form, along with an amazing technical expertise demonstrated by her handling of materials, that few, living or dead, could or can match. To like her work doesn't make one a snob, and one doesn't need a degree in Art History or criticism to appreciate her accomplishment. The 'Emperor's New Clothes' syndrome exists, but seems to me to be the purview of post-modernists like Koons and Hirst--along with kitsch dealers like Kincaid: all of them cynical operators who prey on the trendy and the ill-informed. Unlike those frauds and hacks, Frankenthaler was the real thing, striving her whole professional life to achieve a synthesis of technique and idea, and deserves better than the treatment she's been receiving on this thread.

[TheSarce]

I find it hard to believe no one has pinged YOU to this thread yet... ;-)

[TigersEye]

Holly Academy director Julie Kildee said the boy had been suspended from the charter school and said his parents also have disciplined him.

"Even though we give very strict guidelines on proper behavior and we hold students to high standards, he is only 12 and I don't think he understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he certainly understands the severity of it now," said Kildee.

Oh my, I should hope so! After understanding terrorists, serial killers and baby rapers we're just fresh out of compassion for this sort of satanic miscreant behavior. =8^o

Bwaaa hahahahahahahaha! These freakin' liberals are a riot. I can just see Miz Kildee; dressing down the boy and his parents with a "Save Tookie" button on her lapel.

[TigersEye]

I was cracking up over the title before the thread was even loaded on my browser. The article had me in stitches. When I saw the painting I just about split a gut. My first thought was; the kid saw it and thought to himself "Oh, so that's where people put their old gum around here."

[derllak]

Exactly! Anyone under five can be forgiven, but a twelve year old? Gimmee a break!

[hunter112]

Art sucks, and this little kid showed us a thing or two about its lack of value.

While I deplore his actions, you're unquestionably right. Let the artsy-fartsy types explain why this paint splotch is worth a full $1.5 mil!

[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote, "Let the artsy-fartsy types explain why this paint splotch is worth a full $1.5 mil!"

Here's a short explanation for you: Frankenthaler's work is important and beautiful, and 'The Bay'--necessarily unique since she made no identical copies that I know of--is one of the most representative pieces of her mature style. A more market-oriented explanation would be simply 'supply and demand', since knowledgeable appraisers think $1.5 million is what a given private or public collector or concern would gladly pay to own that particular piece. In an economic sense, art is like any other commodity. Sometimes prices on newer works are either grossly inflated or underestimated, but pieces by proven masters such as Frankenthaler always increase in value over time.

[Republicanprofessor]

Also see post 143.

[Republicanprofessor]

Well said. I tried in post 143, but I think it was ignored.

We'll just keep up the good fight.