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Danish artist who submitted empty frames as artwork told to repay funding

• nonrandomstring 3y ago
  > The museum put the new artworks on display, but when Haaning declined to return the money, it took legal action. Fantastic. They validated his work as John Cage style art! It's not "nothing" in those frames. It's an ingenious representation of the essential emptimess of life and art, seen through the lens of the viewers interpretation.
• JoeAltmaier 3y ago
  You can't display the art in your museum, and simultaneously claim it's not art. Youve just validated it as art! I'm not in favor of nonsense art; just against hypocrisy.
  • goodusername 3y ago
    The court subtracted a fee for the artwork and for the display of the work, which he does not have to give back - so the artist did in fact get paid for his empty frame artwork. Now he just has to give back the money he lent for the originally agreed upon artwork that he did not create. Seems like a fair deal, since he also got a ton of publicity out of it.
  • conformist 3y ago
    What if the museum were to put up a sign that said "This is not art"?
  • RoyalHenOil 3y ago
    It doesn't matter if it's art or not. They commissioned a specific thing, and he did not make that thing. If I commission a painting, and the artist gives me a pencil doodle instead, I can admit the latter is art but still demand a refund. Additionally, he pocketed the materials they provided for that thing, which were not part of the commission fee. This is straight up theft.
    • JoeAltmaier 3y ago
      To illustrate inequality? Surely his artwork does that. Just not in the same rigid structure they imagined he would.
      • RoyalHenOil 3y ago
        I don't know exactly what was specified in the contract, but he himself has admitted that he is in breach of contract. This is not some mystical, mysterious thing that cannot be defined. It's a product. They ordered a product, he delivered the wrong product, and they are well within their rights to pursue legal action against him.
        • JoeAltmaier 3y ago
          Art as a product? Really. We both know that is a topic of much debate. Further, they ordered a redo of a creative effort. They understood it would be substantially the same as the referenced work. He deviated significantly, creatively. Oh well. It's all their business I guess.
  • gwern 3y ago
    There's a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_the_Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_the_Court in here somewhere, I just know it...
• klyrs 3y ago
  > Haaning told Danish radio at the time: "The work is that I have taken their money. It's not theft. It is breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work." Whoops. You weren't supposed to admit that it was breach of contract. You were supposed to say that by displaying your art, they publicly signaled their acceptance of the work. They're trying to get a refund on the sandwich they just ate. You could have told them to piss off if you hadn't characterized the work as a breach of contract. Or, that's the legal advice a scammer would follow. Instead, it's a proof of principled action that, in my mind, restores its status as a work of art. > He added: "I encourage other people who have working conditions as miserable as mine to do the same. If they're sitting in some shitty job and not getting paid, and are actually being asked to pay money to go to work, then grab what you can and beat it."
  • germandiago 3y ago
    He encourages... I think honest people, when we are not good enough at something, should pick another job and move on. That's how things are.
    • justtocomment 3y ago
      That's how things are for some. Not everybody has this luxury.
      • IshKebab 3y ago
        He's an artist. He's not stacking shelves in a supermarket.
      • germandiago 3y ago
        In a country like Denmark your labour chances and universities are better in average than in mine, Spain. It looks like nowadays everything is suffering, exploited or something. I lived for almost 12 years in Asia, mostly in Vietnam, but also in Singapore. Seriously, the concept of miserable that we have in Europe has become (at least according to my perception) something like "I do not like it, so it is ok to go get the money from a museum, to get social helps, to blame the politicians about the labor market... whatever". I think that is not honest at all most of the time. The average local in Vietnam lives in much harder conditions actually. I do not mean we should live like them. But be aware that most people in the world live like Vietnamese, not like Danish, in average.
• d1sxeyes 3y ago
  It's pretty clear from the article that he was paid ~5K USD to replicate a piece of work he'd already created twice before—bank notes arranged to demonstrate average annual income. The museum also gave him the money that would feature in this artwork, but it was not intended as a payment. He's been told he has to pay back that money, but not his artist's fee.
• germandiago 3y ago
  In spanish we would say "caradura" to a guy like this.
• belval 3y ago
  > The museum provided about 532,000 krone (£61,500) from its reserves to recreate artworks as well as an artist’s fee of about 40,000 krone. But when staff unpacked the newly delivered works, they found two empty frames with the title Take the Money and Run. The title should be edited, the artist was not told to repay funding, he was told to return the bank notes that he was given as a medium for the piece (wall of bills). This is really more like an artist saying they'll make a gold statue from gold given by the museum, and delivering a clay statue (or no statue at all) after pocketing the gold.
• boppo1 3y ago
  Finally! People are realising the emperor has no clothes.