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Danish artist told to repay museum €67,000 after turning in blank canvasses
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- hiccuphippo 3y agoI like it. I would have bought the paintings from him but rename them to "Take the canvas and run".
- BuildTheRobots 3y ago> Museum director Lasse Andersson said that he had laughed out loud when he first saw the two blank canvasses in 2021, and decided to show the works anyway. I would have thought choosing to exhibit the two pieces after inspecting them would be seen as acceptance by the museum.
- kawhah 3y agoThe museum lent the artist money as well as paying him to produce the works. Accepting the art submitted does not invalidate the artist's requirement to repay the loan.
- dizhn 3y agoThe"artist" seems like the kind of guy who would easily say the quality of "the material (cash) they gave me wasn't good so I used something else instead. So we're even." He's quoted as saying the musemum gained a lot more in publicity without mentioning the publicity he himself got while stealing the museum's money.
- hnbad 3y agoIt's certainly something to hear an artist say that the value they provided in an exchange was exposure. Usually this goes the other way around.
- Brian_K_White 3y agoYou know, what a great observation. That could even be part of it all. It probably wasn't an intentional point but it could be. It is so dead on.
- dagw 3y agoIn the original Danish article he is quoted saying the whole affair has been good for him professionally as well
- dagw 3y agoHeadline is slightly misleading. He doesn't have to pay back his base fee and and actual material costs. What he does have to pay back is the additional money he was supposed to spend on the work, plus legal fees. When he pitched the work and got the commission he said an annual average danish salary in cash would be integrated into the work, and the museum agreed to give him this money on top of his fees. When the money wasn't used in this way in the work the museum received, the museum decided they wanted that money back.
- ryanmcdonough 3y agoI wonder if galleries will now have clauses like “The artist shall utilise the bank notes to visually reproduce a specific artwork, such as the Mona Lisa. The bank notes should form the actual colours and contours of the artwork, and the final piece should not be a mere abstract interpretation.”
- tromp 3y agoAnd to think that these earlier Kazimir Malevich works from 1915 [1] and 1918 [2] were already considered minimalistic... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Square_(painting) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Square_(painting) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_on_White https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_on_White
- alexvitkov 3y agoAt least he had the human decency to tilt the white square 5 degrees. Or maybe it was an installation error
- ryanmcdonough 3y agoMuseum director Lasse Andersson said that he had laughed out loud when he first saw the two blank canvasses in 2021, and decided to show the works anyway. "He stirred up my curatorial staff and he also stirred me up a bit, but I also had a laugh because it was really humoristic," the museum's director, Lasse Andersson So the museum director was happy, curators were interested and they were on display - feels like the money was his?
- kryptiskt 3y agoHe got to keep his fee, what he didn't get to keep was the cash that he was lent that was supposed to be part of the installation.
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- ryanmcdonough 3y agoHe said the work was taking their money, unless the contract specifically said “The artist shall utilise the bank notes to visually reproduce a specific artwork, such as the Mona Lisa. The bank notes should form the actual colours and contours of the artwork, and the final piece should not be a mere abstract interpretation.” Maybe it did and that’s why they got the money back, but if not I’d side with the artist
- pringk02 3y agoIt seems that was basically what it was. He had an earlier 2010 work called "An Average Danish Year Income": https://www.sabsay.com/artists/43-jens-haaning/works/9668-jens-haaning-an-average-danish-year-income-2010/ https://www.sabsay.com/artists/43-jens-haaning/works/9668-je... He was asked to reproduce it for 2021 using the money given
- Aurornis 3y ago> unless the contract specifically said That’s the whole point of the lawsuit. The artist broke the terms of the contract. You don’t think they’d hand him a giant pile of cash, ask nicely for him to give it back, and hope for the best, do you? These commissions will have clear contracts about deliverables, ownership, and rights assignment.
- mg 3y agoThis reminds me of a common theme in the art world. I wonder if there is a name for it. Maybe "Low effort art"? Examples off the top of my head: John Cage "composed" a song consisting of just silence. Marcel Duchamp exhibited a urinal which he simply purchased from a store. Yves Klein exhibited 11 paintings that were exactly the same. They were simply blue, no structures or subject. But he priced them all differently. I can't remember the name, but I recently read about a photographer who exhibited nothing and then made photos of confused faces during the exhibition. I can't remember which art prize it was, but there once was an art price which asked artists to "make a piece of art that represents your country". And a female artist wrote back "Dear jury, just give me the art prize for my reputation. You can keep the money in return. This would also represent my country as we have so much corruption here". And she won.
- x86hacker1010 3y agoMaybe you are thinking of Dadaism?
- fodkodrasz 3y agoClassic postmodern. Shows the lack of something. Usually the lack of originality and the lack of any value.
- coldtea 3y agoFor lack of originality, those examples are all very original. For lack of artistic value, are all highly regarded by critics and art audiences. For lack of mometary value, they've been sold for very expensive prices...
- fodkodrasz 3y agoYou have a different definition of original than me, it seems. Critics and art audiences: totally no "opinion monopoly" or manufactured consent at play, right? Monetary value? You mean money laundering?
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- bowsamic 3y agoI don't understand why whether or not there is paint on the canvas or not makes it a worthy piece of art. Though I guess asking for the money back is perhaps "counter art"?
- theragra 3y agoI think museum is not right. Yes, de jure, artist is wrong. But this is kind of funny and people enjoyed this, and this is not so much money for a big museum. Europe is famous for tolerating art stuff, even if it is shocking or dumb or weird, and I like this tradition. It would be awful for Europe as a whole to become beaurocratic and dull, because eu commission and parliament already are boring enough
- jamespo 3y agoyou could commission him?
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- cainxinth 3y ago"Art is what you can get away with." -Andy Warhol
- dauertewigkeit 3y ago[dead]
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- OldGuyInTheClub 3y agoHighly recommend the short story "Baxter's Procrustes" by Charles Chesnutt. https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Chesnutt_Baxters_Procrustes.pdf https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Chesnutt_Baxt...
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