The motto of this museum is: "This art is too bad to be ignored." And visitor reviews usually sound slightly different: "This art is too emotional to be forgotten." And both of these statements are equally true for the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA), which has offices in several locations in the US state of Massachusetts.
We will talk about this interesting cultural object in this article.
How the museum appeared
Well, at first, of course, the collection appeared. One Boston antique dealer named Scott Wilson once showed his friends several paintings - an eccentric got them, rummaging in the thrown junk. However, the paintings were so entertaining that Wilson, along with his friend Jerry Reilly, was seriously carried away by collecting these "masterpieces among non-masterpieces" and soon decided to create a small museum.
By the way, the collection was replenished: the price of paintings of this kind on flea markets was insignificant either they were donated to the museum after hearing about its existence, or the "masterpieces" were found among the discarded junk.
The first exposition settled in an antiquary’s apartment, but then, due to an increase in the number of paintings, it moved to the basement of the Amateur Theater in Dedham, a suburb of Boston. This happened in 1994-1995.
Then there was a room in the Somerville Cinema ... Unfortunately, due to the limited space for the exhibition, visitors could see no more than 30-40 works at a time. About a hundred people sometimes gathered for the days of reception and exhibitions, and there was absolutely not enough space for work and for all guests.
As the Boston Globe, the largest Boston newspaper, noted at that time, the works of this art are located in the immediate vicinity of the toilet, the sounds and smells of which are very likely to “help maintain uniform humidity”.
Since then, the museum has several galleries and branches. There are already more than 500 paintings in the storerooms where the "strange paintings" are stored.
Exhibitions
The thing, however, was not only the crowded rooms: the creators were actively looking for unconventional forms of demonstration of their collection. So, at the very beginning of the existence of MOVA, paintings were hung on trees in a forest on the Cape Cod Peninsula, in the easternmost tip of Massachusetts. Its organizers called the exhibition "Art from the Window - Gallery in the Forest."
Next was the Awash in Bad Art exposition, which can be translated as “Bathing in Bad Art”. 18 paintings took part in this show, they were covered with waterproof film and placed in a car wash so that guests could contemplate them from the car window.
In 2001, a show took place, designated as “Naked Bucks - Nothing But a Nude,” where canvases of the corresponding subject were presented.
Selection criterion
The repository of the Museum of Bad Art is by no means the first scribble of an inept artist, as it may seem. The selection criteria for the works are quite severe. In short, this is "the best of the worst."
The museum’s curators assured that the collection will never have children's drawings or pictures made for tourists, as well as intentionally distorted copies of famous works.
We are looking for work that appeared in an attempt to make a kind of breakthrough in art - but at the same time, something went wrong, -
says current museum head Michael Frank.
Therefore, if in the collection there appear works remotely resembling well-known masterpieces, then these are paintings with their own zest, the author’s interpretation of the famous plot. Like, for example, Mona Lisa.
Moreover, neither the presence nor the lack of artistic skill among the creators of new works is the main criterion for the Museum of Bad Art. The main thing is that the painting or sculpture should not be boring.
The most famous masterpieces are not masterpieces
As the museum legend has become a tradition, the first painting that Wilson dared to pull out of a pile of garbage was subsequently the most famous - "Lucy in the Field with Flowers" (as the museum’s creators themselves called it). For a while she hung in the house of Wilson's friend Jerry Reilly. It was after finding this work that the collection began to purposefully replenish.
As the short description shows, this
canvas, oil; author unknown; painting found in trash in Boston.
Lucy has always attracted the attention of the media and visitors. Here is what is written in the museum's advertising booklet about this work:
... movement, a chair, the swaying of her breasts, the subtle shades of the sky, the expression of her face - every detail is combined to create this transcendent and convincing portrait, every detail shouts: "A masterpiece!"
The painting "A juggling dog in a grass skirt" was presented to the museum by the artist who wrote it - Mary Newman from Minneapolis. She said that she used an old canvas already used by someone for this picture. The image is based on a cartoon of a dachshund, toy bones for dogs from a pet store, and an image of a grass skirt seen somewhere by Mary.
In general, paintings with animals, in particular with dogs, are very popular in the museum. Take a look, for example, at this also "stellar" work, which is held in the hands of the keepers of the collection. It is called Blue Tango.
The next most famous of the paintings is “George on a night pot on a Sunday afternoon” (acrylic on canvas; author unknown; donated by J. Shulman). It is believed that this work is made in the style of primitivism and pointillism, a trend in neo-impressionism that arose at the end of the 19th century. To experts, it resembles the work of the French artist Georges Seurat.
The following review was once left about this picture by one of the visitors:
Someone slipped into the bathroom when I looked at this picture, and began to urinate loudly in the toilet. The booming sound of urine splashing while watching George brought life to the picture, and when the drain sounded, I cried.
They also said that the picture supposedly depicts some important person. According to the assumption made by the creators of the Shnobel Prize, the prototype of the portrait is neither more nor less than the former US Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Conclusion
The Museum of Bad Art (sometimes called the Museum of the Ugliest Paintings of the World) is mentioned in many Boston guides. It is believed that the creation of this unusual collection has become a source of inspiration for other collectors - those who decided to devote themselves to "the best bad art." For there is something in these strange paintings that is disturbingly difficult to grasp, hanging between kitsch and a masterpiece. What professors of painting speak with contempt, and an article by the eminent New York Times, which tells about the paintings of the museum, begins with the words "It's almost funny ...".
The museum has been criticized more than once for propagating anti-art, but the founders claim that it was created in order to welcome the master’s right to fail. For, working and time after time, trying to create an ideal, the artist in his most imperfect creations demonstrates this impulse, even despite the mediocre mastery of the craft.
Whether it is true or not, the museum, existing and, apparently, not without visitors for a quarter of a century, is certainly interesting as one of the most unusual art objects of our time.