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Art or heist? A Danish artist took $84k and sent a museum 2 blank canvases
- pcurve 5y agoConsidering the publicity, I think both parties benefited. The only loser is general public. Having majored in fine arts, I appreciate all kinds of art forms. Even Banksy's work demonstrates mastery of the medium. Hell, I'd challenge most people to recreate Rothko's paintings. But this? It's an expression. It's a commentary. It can be a lot of things. But to me, it's not art.
- bhouston 5y agoGotta love artists doing the unexpected and then presenting it as art. It is sometimes a fine line, because if you go too far, people may not buy it. But then maybe you make a media discussion about it, and you get more famous!
- ralfn 5y agoEspecially with an idea as original as this.
- cosmotic 5y agoI suspect this was sarcasm? This is certainly not novel.
- Ansil849 5y ago> This is certainly not novel. Which other artist has done it?
- colinmhayes 5y agohttps://www.moma.org/collection/works/114939 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/114939
- thrwaway9871 5y agoEvery con artist ever. Pun intended.
- cosmotic 5y agoProbably no artists have. Bada-bing!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- gowld 5y agoWhen anything anyone does is "art" just because someone reacts to it in some way, it's just "person" not "artist". My farts are art. I'm a fartist.
- YeGoblynQueenne 5y agoThere have been such artists before. Le Pétomane Joseph Pujol (June 1, 1857 – August 8, 1945), best known by his stage name Le Pétomane (/ləˈpɛtəmeɪn/,[citation needed] French pronunciation: [ləpetɔman]), was a French flatulist (professional farter) and entertainer. He was famous for his remarkable control of the abdominal muscles, which enabled him to seemingly fart at will. His stage name combines the French verb péter, "to fart" with the -mane, "-maniac" suffix, which translates to "fartomaniac". The profession is referred to as "flatulist", "farteur", or "fartiste".[1] It was a common misconception that Joseph Pujol passed intestinal gas as part of his stage performance. Rather, Pujol was allegedly able to "inhale" or move air into his rectum and then control the release of that air with his anal sphincter muscles. Evidence of his ability to control those muscles was seen in the early accounts of demonstrations of his abilities to fellow soldiers.[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_P%C3%A9tomane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_P%C3%A9tomane
- weego 5y agoIt's a piece of tangible performance art, which is unusual and not the medium they expected.
- jld 5y agoHe should send another invoice for the extra services!
- ketanmaheshwari 5y agoGiven the resulting publicity and buzz this has gotten, I'd think the money spent was worth it from the museum's point of view.
- tokai 5y agoThe money was never to be spend, the museum loaned them to the artist. They were suppose to be used as the literal material for the commissioned art work.
- moate 5y agoPartially incorrect. The artist was paid a fee as well as provided money to use for the piece and to purchase/frame it. This article didn't make entirely clear which of that money they're asking for.
- wil421 5y ago> Haaning signed a contract with the Kunsten, promising to deliver the artwork and to return the $84,000. It’s pretty clear the $84k was for the art and the ~$7k was for the expenses to create the art.
- moate 5y agoImagine the (very?) likely clown shoes scenario of the museum holding him in breach of contract, being required to return the pieces, and then watching them sell for a cool million at auction. Look at what just happened with the Banksy shredder piece for example.
- usmannk 5y ago"Haaning took the money as part of an agreement with the Kunsten, which says it loaned Haaning more than half a million kroner so he could frame the cash in a reprise of an earlier artwork." They didn't just commission him to make art. The museum contracted him to reproduce a particular piece of art, which Haaning did not do.
- lapetitejort 5y agoFrom what I understand from the article, the museum gave him physical cash in which to use as the medium, along with money to pay for his labor (more that two times the quoted value, as well). In all, he received ~28 times the amount of money quoted. Pretty scummy thing to do, even if "provocative."
- pavel_lishin 5y agoHe has until January to return it. Although he broke the terms of the contract, the museum seems happy enough with the results so far - so long as he actually returns the money, it sounds like everything will be fine and non-scummy. > The artist now faces a deadline to give the museum its money back on Jan. 16, when the work exhibition closes. The museum says it's talking with him about that deadline
- tokai 5y agoWell he has said that he won't return them at the deadline. But I guess he has to say that for now.
- ASalazarMX 5y agoI have a hard time believing this happened as the museum describes, because everyone will know this man has a large sum of cash sitting in his home/shop for three months. There had to be preparations to keep the money safe during the exhibition.
- yholio 5y agoBut if they had paid him to create completely new art, it wouldn't have been an authentic performance of "Take the money and run", but a mere simulacrum. The breach of contract is the artwork.
- endisneigh 5y agoI’ll remember this when my AI for reproducing art is operational. I’ll do the same thing as this artist, but at scale.
- ModernMech 5y agoArt at scale is no longer art, it’s kitsch.
- cjohansson 5y agoGreat idea. When I'm finished with my AI that produces AIs to make money I will do the same
- smnrchrds 5y agoHe transitioned from artist to con artist.
- jareklupinski 5y agocan't wait to see more work coming from this brave new branch of 'con art' :^)
- TigeriusKirk 5y agoBy the contemporary conception of art, this is definitely art. Perhaps even brilliant art.
- fullshark 5y agoContemporary Art - Something "clever" that appreciation of signals to others that you aren't a member of the bourgeois.
- outlog 5y ago“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” - Steve Jobs/Picasso/Stravinsky/Eliot
- awb 5y agoTo be clear, they're talking about ideas and the adaptation of those ideas, not literally stealing cash or property. “Good artists borrow [by modifying ideas], great artists steal [by copying ideas].”
- alpaca128 5y agoThe stealing part doesn't refer to directly copying ideas (I mean what great artist would do that?), more how good artists instead are able to use other works as inspiration, "make it their own" and put their spin on it.
- gowld 5y agoRight. In Jobs world, that meant stuff like taking existing Chinese tech and making it into something with worldwide wow/cool factor.
- ooer 5y agoYou got me curious. Which Chinese tech did he steal to make the iProducts with?
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> Jobs world, that meant stuff like taking existing Chinese tech It was a reference to Apple apocryphally stealing "the mouse, windows, icons, and other technologies that had been developed at [Xerox] PARC" [1]. They didn't copy an existing product. They deprived Xerox of the market into which to launch their own product. [1] https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/parc.html https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/parc.html
- awb 5y ago
- cfup 5y agoCan't wait for this kind of art in NFT form! /s
- vvarren 5y agoBe careful what you wish for https://opensea.io/collection/take-the-money-and-run https://opensea.io/collection/take-the-money-and-run
- jayspell 5y agoTwo things I would say about this... 1.) It's honest 2.) It's better than most modern / contemporary art
- dylan604 5y agoHN timing is so weird: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28683497 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28683497
- colpabar 5y agoI'm honestly very surprised there's no mention of banksy's shredder stunt in the piece. I would have thought an artist would somehow try to portray themselves as being as cool as banksy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXKE0nAMmg4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXKE0nAMmg4
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Ansil849 5y agoThis beats the con artistry of NFT scams any day.
- esjeon 5y agoThe act of violating the contract (w/ the museum) itself is the art-work here. On another side, I think this is quite a good deal for the museum. This story is pretty popular on the internet in many countries, and $84k sounds pretty cheap for an international ad campaign. Plus, the artist is still delivering a kind of modern art.
- m3kw9 5y agoArt if you attach the context
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoAt least he had the decency not to leave his excrements [1] behind, claiming it to be an art object, like that other guy. So I guess it is not the worst example of contemporary art. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist%27s_Shit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist%27s_Shit
- dmitrygr 5y agoThis is hilarious on so many levels My suggestion to him: Turn in a new artwork next week: the money shredded. Call it "you greedy bastards" It can be explained as a revolt against the existing power structures in the financial world, where the poor are only noticed when they cause unrest.
- szarnyasg 5y agoCasey Neistat did something similar in 2012, although he returned something resembling a commercial video and not a blank canvas. > After arriving at an agreed-upon treatment with Nike for its latest commercial, director Casey Neistat literally took the money and ran–filming a trip around the world on Nike’s dime, and presenting the footage as the ad. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxfZkMm3wcg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxfZkMm3wcg [2] https://www.fastcompany.com/1680524/how-director-casey-neistat-went-rogue-with-nikes-new-ad https://www.fastcompany.com/1680524/how-director-casey-neist...
- gowld 5y agoHe created at actual ad, not just a resemblance. Ads are usually arbitrary fluff plus a logo.
- YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago>> Ads are usually arbitrary fluff plus a logo. Just like superhero movies.
- akyu 5y agoThey paid him to direct an ad and he directed an ad. You are falling for the marketing my friend.
- max46 5y agoit's a very different situation. The money the artist stole never belonged to him, it wasn't his salary or a budget he was allowed to spend on the fabrication of the art. He had a specific contract and he was paid to take that 84k$ and lay it on a canvas to replicate a previous art piece he had done. The cash was supposed to be returned to the museum after.
- Leparamour 5y agoSo more along the lines of embezzlement?
- dpiers 5y ago
- Waterluvian 5y ago"It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work," Being sued or prosecuted will also be part of the artwork.
- kyleblarson 5y agoWell it works for Hunter Biden so why not?
- legitster 5y agoI went to an exhibit on modern art at SAM. It was full of ironic pieces, like a gauge that measured its own distance to the floor and ceiling (and had some sort of ironic name about literalism or something). The centerpieces was a big blank canvas with the words "I could have done that" scrawled across it in marker. I stick to historic exhibits for the most part now.
- lelandfe 5y agoThe Tate Modern has a huge room filled with what seems to be detritus left over from mounting art - ladders, glue, tape, and so on. Your first reaction is that they are switching out an exhibition. It’s only when you read the placard that you find out that each item had been painstakingly carved out of something like resin and painted over a span of years. Nearby is an empty room, where they actually are switching out an exhibition.
- thrwyoilarticle 5y agoSo you visited the Tate Modern and, out of all the pieces, the one you recall an anecdote about was the obnoxious detritus? Seems like it did the job.
- lelandfe 5y agoI actually quite liked that piece :)
- Neil44 5y agoFor me modern art is about my reaction to the piece, and the insight and illumination into myself that that gives. So looking at a piece is in a way looking at myself. Modern art can also be a way of communicating feelings and ideas that language cannot express very well.
- wyager 5y agoYou may enjoy the recent episode of the Good Ol Boyz podcast with Dr Hans Georg Moeller on Profilicity. It’s an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon you’re describing.
- stuff4ben 5y agoGood reminder to never pay upfront for work (or art in this case).
- maldeh 5y ago"Art is what you can get away with." - Andy Warhol
- citizenpaul 5y agoModern art is money laundering. It is crazy how it has taken over the entire industry.
- scns 5y agoIn Germany, an art collective rented the plot adjacent to the plot where Björn Höcke, a far-right politician from the AFD lives and installed a miniature holocaust memorial there. All lawsuits against it have been dismissed. Text is in german, DeepL [1] may be of help. [0] https://politicalbeauty.de/holocaust-mahnmal-bornhagen.html https://politicalbeauty.de/holocaust-mahnmal-bornhagen.html [1] https://www.deepl.com/translator#de/en/ https://www.deepl.com/translator#de/en/
- yial 5y agoAfter reading about this, I’m convinced that it’s mostly marketing. He’s supposed to return the money in 2022. If he doesn’t, I’ll be convinced that this wasn’t just a marketing stunt after he thought up an alternative. He thought up a fun way to play with this concept of being handed so much in cash… the museum then went along with this idea. The resulting publicity, and that fact that the money is supposed to be returned… really seems like brilliant marketing.
- Leparamour 5y agoUnless his newly found fame attracts another group of more physical extraction "artists".
- delaynomore 5y agoThis artist just one-upped Robert Rauschenberg Ref: https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/40/639 https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/40/639
- sakopov 5y agoThis reminds me of a man who ate the exhibit at a Miami museum consisting of a banana taped to a wall and then proclaimed that it was an art performance [1]. The exhibit was supposedly going for $120K-150K. [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/performance-artist-eats-120-000-banana-duct-taped-wall-calls-n1097696 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/performance-artist-eats...
- hedora 5y agoI’m hoping some smart ass offers to buy it from the artist for $100,000, but only on the condition that he not return the money to the museum. Clearly the museum got a good deal; good luck showing damages in court! Mwuhahah.
- jboggan 5y ago"And then you get an artist / He says he doesn't want to paint at all / He takes an empty canvas / And sticks it on the wall" - Dire Straits, "In The Gallery" (1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-v6JeolLzw&t=8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-v6JeolLzw&t=8s
- timwaagh 5y agoI think it's brilliant. Hope they let him keep it. ...But why all the commentary on social inequality? It's more than a little... rich
- onemoresoop 5y agoTo me all this cleverness has become a bit boring. I am aware that there is a story behind all these "masterpieces" and the story makes the art more or less, but it's become such a predictable trick-fest that I stopped paying attention. It's not even an original statement, it's been done countless times before. Am I missing anything?
- anonu 5y agoThe publicity towards the museum is worth every penny of that $84k. The best part is the work is fairly unreproducible now. Few artists will dare deliver blank canvases.
- _fat_santa 5y agoI think this is brilliant. Art is supposed to inspire emotion and tell a story. Thought doing it in a different way, this piece quite literally demonstrates the purest form of "story behind the art". No doubt the artist will be giving the money back, this seems to be too perfect not to be the plan from the getgo. My only question is, was the museum aware of this plan from the start and is the "omg where's out money" is just manufactured for the marketing. Either way whether just for marketing or the entire point of the art piece, brilliant.
- anonu 5y agoWhy would you be so sure the money will be returned?
- TheRealNGenius 5y agoWell would you look at that, according to my criteria [1] that’s not art! [1] https://wndr.xyz/posts/9fjM1tOJO7MWX4fYw3AU2Q==/what-s-art-and-what-s-not https://wndr.xyz/posts/9fjM1tOJO7MWX4fYw3AU2Q==/what-s-art-a...
- SkipperCat 5y agoWith enough press like this, the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art might make that money back in visitors. Art can be just as much about absurdity as it can be about talent. Just look at Marcel Duchamp.
- mrb 5y agoThe canvases would have been ten times better (IMHO) if the artist had sloppily and quickly written "Take the Money and Run" on them, and maybe even left the brush and paint on the floor below the canvas But then, maybe I'm wrong, and that's why I'm not an artist :)
- klyrs 5y agoUpon some reflection, I have decided that this is indeed art. It's clearly in the succession of Dadaism; a critique of art critique. It opens up for a very peculiar legal challenge. Every blank canvas sold after today can be seen as a derivative or blatant copy of this work. I'd love to see this artist sue a producer of blank canvases for royalties. Alternatively, if he didn't make the frame and stretch the canvas himself, the manufacturer can likewise sue the artist. Please let this make it as far as the courts. I'll make popcorn.
- mongol 5y ago(Google Translated) Liljevalch's benches were designed by the art gallery's architect Carl Bergsten, but it is the artist Dan Wolgers who has made them famous. Before a group exhibition at Liljevalch's in the autumn of 1992, in which Dan Wolgers would participate, he - as his only contribution - removed two of the art gallery's benches and sold them at Stockholm's Auktionsverk. The whole thing was a protest against the low exhibition fees that artists were offered by the country's art institutions. According to Dan Wolger's calculations, the rather modest sum from the sale of the benches would correspond to a reasonable compensation for his participation in Liljevalchs. He was reported to the police by private individuals, received a suspended sentence and a 60-day fine. When the letter with the court decision and payment card arrived, he sold it unopened to a collector and thus earned the fine together. Liljevalchs bought back the benches and showed them at the exhibition to a very interested audience. https://liljevalchs.se/butiken/tandstickor-banken/ https://liljevalchs.se/butiken/tandstickor-banken/ Edit: Apparently, a matchbox with an illustration of the benches can now be purchased in the museum's gift shop.
- mongol 5y agoDan Wolgers was also contracted to design the cover of the Stockholm phonebook (yellow pages). His contribution? His name and phone number on the front page. https://bukowskis.com/sv/lots/874985-dan-wolgers-telefonkatalog-1992 https://bukowskis.com/sv/lots/874985-dan-wolgers-telefonkata...
- spywaregorilla 5y agoWhile walking around Germany I found a truck that appeared to be a traveling dadaist art museum. It was unattended and you could walk in and see a bunch of shelves with exhibit labels. The shelves were all empty. I was not sure if that was intended. Or if perhaps it was actually a traveling museum and it's pieces were being exhibited somewhere.
- PerkinWarwick 5y agoThis man is a genius. We've hit Peak Modern Art. Honestly, you can't buy this kind of PR. Do a dozen more, number and sign them on the back, profit.
- blablabla123 5y agoIn school it used to be a running gag to speculate how astonished the philosophy teacher would be if someone would hand in an essay with just the word "No".
- bazhova 5y ago> "The work is that I have taken their money," Haaning stated. I hope he enjoys the second half of his art - legal action
- dcanelhas 5y agoI feel like there is a parallel between this and NFTs to be made but I don't think I understand enough about either to phrase it adequately. Superficially though, I believe the price paid for those specific canvases make them "non-fungible" (I don't think the museum would just throw them away now) and I guess one could argue that they qualify as tokens, too.
- aussiegreenie 5y agoThose two works have generated more publicity and awareness of the artist than anything he/she has produced. The Gallery should be ecstatic. Personally, my guess he/she has doubled the value of his/hers existing works.
- emi420 5y agoIt looks very similar to this other piece of art: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erased_de_Kooning_Drawing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erased_de_Kooning_Drawing