June 10, 2004

The Mad Artist What Hangs Art At Midnight Paintings of President Bush and former President Clinton, accompanied by messages referring to the artist's bodily fluids, mysteriously appeared last week on the walls of two major city museums and reportedly at two other museums in Philadelphia and Washington.
posted by Koko 20 years ago
  • agents determined there was no threat to the public, authorities said. Cancel red alert.
  • So he says to me, you gotta do something smart, baby, something big! He says you want to be a supervillain, right, and I go yeah baby, yeah yeah! What do I gotta do? He says you got pictures, hang 'em up the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it's packed with pictures…you'll go down in supervillain history and I go Yeah baby 'cause I'm the Evil Midnight Artist what Hangs at Midnight!!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!
  • surlyboi eez de beeeg beeeg teek fan
  • Will someone in the arts PLEASE tell me what the attraction is to using one's own bodily fluids to paint? Because it's gross.
  • Because it is "gross." You got it. Both in symbolism and in the visceral (ahem) reaction provoked in the viewer.
  • Visual stories like this need photos!!!
  • Hmph. Those who have talent don't need to consciously generate visceral antipathy. And perhaps I'm just a nekulturny muttonhead, but the inherent symbolism of spooge on canvas is lost on me.
  • Dammit, Forks. That's the last time I carry anything into the Met for you.
  • I am the Midnight Spermer what Sperms at Midnight! I said yeah, baby, yeah!
  • Bluehorse-- Is this art? Please advise!
  • What a waste of all that food... Wrong thread, huh?
  • BlueHorse is gonna smack us BOTH in the head!
  • i'm not sure i'm very interested in seeing this artist's handiwork....
  • But Wedge, the process of making the art is so... stimulating. I'm left wondering what size brush he uses.
  • Tom Green did something like this only better. He hung his own picture in an art museum, then waited for people to look at it, asked them what they thought of it, then took out a magic marker and added things to it. There were no bodily fluids involved in that prank that I know of.
  • I remember reading a couple years ago about some guy who made his own highway sign and put it up on the interstate and it was months before anyone noticed that it wasn't an official sign.
  • Fes: Unfortunately art isn't about talent anymore. The elite define what is "art" and scoff at the boors (like us) who don't "get it". Of course, none of that has anything to do with this guy, unless he becomes the latest darling of the art world for pulling off (no pun intended) this stunt.
  • It surprises me that agents determined there was no threat to the public. The fact agents were brought in at all shows that their is a great deal of fear of what should probably be a local issue. Judging by the descriptions of the works, they had very little logical value. rocket88, I agree, if anyone were to sneak paintings into an art gallery to make a political statement, they ought to put a little more effort into their work. As there are no pictures avaliable, it seems demostrative that there was little to look at.
  • surlyboi eez de beeeg beeeg teek fan I'm full of tinier men!!!
  • The elite define what is "art" and scoff at the boors (like us) who don't "get it". I call anti-intellectualism.
  • I remember reading a couple years ago about some guy who made his own highway sign and put it up on the interstate and it was months before anyone noticed that it wasn't an official sign. Guerilla Public Service I think they only "discovered" it after he released his documentary. It's a great film, I'd recommend it.
  • My elite buddies and I wish to scoff at boors. Who here does not "get it"? Please bend over, my scoffing stick is primed.
  • Blaise: Agreed.
  • Anti-Intellectualism? More like anti-Artsnobbery. Case in point: The National Gallery of Canada's 1990 purchase of Barnett Newman's Voice of Fire for $1.8 Million. When there was a public uproar over the use of taxpayer money to buy this piece of shit (3 stripes on a canvas), the Gallery director sneered "What do they know?".
  • Don't feel bad, rocket88. It took me about 20 years to appreciate art, especially minimalism. But you make it seem like Canadians don't ordinarily sneer. I tell you, if they are not sneering, then they are going on and on about Canada this and Canada that and blah blah blah Canada. However, most of the time, they gush over Canada ad nauseam *while* sneering.
  • Funniest damn article of the week. And $1.8 Million? Shit. For you, Canada, I'd only charge $250,000 to paint the exact same thing. You won't be able to tell it from the original. I'll even skip the bodily fluids this time.
  • Oh, I'll be semening you In all the old familiar faces That this heart of mine embraces All day through.