Art I Hate and Why: "The Politician: A Toy" by Billie Lawless

Nationality: American
Born-Died: Don't know, don't care
Creation Date: 1996
Size: Huge
Media: A bunch of crap glued together
Location: Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

The only thing positive that I can say about this sculpture is that it was funded by private money.  Let fools throw their own money away, in my opinion.

For many years I drove past this artistic horror daily where it instilled in me the feeling that I had just seen a tragic accident involving clown cars. From these firsthand experiences, I can assure you that this sculpture is as asinine in real life as it is in these two photographs and that nothing significant is lost in the translation.  Although the photographs don't show the way the thing moves--its mouth mechanically opens and closes in what is supposed to be a statement about politicians--I would not call that any loss. It is a parody of a child's toy, but it certainly has less visual appeal than one as it was designed with less sensitivity and less wit.  If an artist is going to shamelessly rip off Picasso, they should at least rip off the good aspects of his work--the sensitivity to composition--not merely the cubist trappings.

The garbage art as I will always remember it.

The first picture here perfectly summarizes the way I always experienced this sculpture: like a long joke that wasn't funny amidst the rotted-out background of Cleveland's gray Chester Avenue.*  Because sometimes stains refuse to be scrubbed away, this sculpture has recently been moved from Dunham Tavern to Cleveland State University where it will, no doubt, blight the campus.  When students look at it, I expect it will affect their minds in the manner of huffed lighter fluid, perhaps taking away their will to live a little more each day.  

Art I Hate and Why: Pablo Picasso's "Guernica"

Nationality: Spanish
Born-Died: 1938-1994

Creation Date: 1937

Size: 137.4 × 305.5 inch (349 × 776 cm)

Media: Oil on canvas

Location: Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain

This is the most overrated painting from the 20^th century. 

Despite all the hype surrounding it and despite all the work that went into making it (and Picasso put an enormous amount of work into it) the result is like a cheap wine served in an enormous glass. 

Art I Hate and Why: Lovis Corinth's "Samson Blinded"

Nationality: German
Born-Died: 1858-1925

Creation Date: 1912

Media: Oil on canvas

Location: Nationalgalerie, Berlin , Germany

This is not merely an illustration of Samson, a character from the Old Testament.  Its value as art lies in the fact that what it represents is much more fundamental: a view of man—an opinion about the nature of all men embodied in the image of one man.  The view of man offered in this painting is the following: man is weak, groping blindly, crushed, sickly, incapable, brutish, and (at best) formerly powerful. 

Art I Hate and Why: Paul Cézanne's "Bathers"

Nationality: French
Born-Died: 1839-1906

Media: Oils on canvas

Amidst all the discussion in the arts industry about how great these paintings are, no one ever seems to express the opinion that Cézanne's “Bather” paintings are incredibly bad—so that is what I am doing here.  They are very bad.  Their color is terrible, the brushwork is sloppy at best—it’s very often pointlessly brushy--and in many cases the figures are as awkwardly rendered as the drawings of a high school student (independent of attempts at perceptual effects--see below.)

Art I Hate and Why: John Silk Deckard's "Eternal Vigilance"

Nationality: American
Born-Died: 1938-1994

Creation Date: 1978

Size: 25.125 x 34.875 inch (63.8 x 88.5cm)

Media: Larger than life size

Location: The Erie Art Museum, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA

I have never seen a less inviting work of art adorning the entrance of any building, let alone an art museum.  I would be lying if I said I felt anything but loathing for this sculpture, which is appropriate considering it stems from a loathing of man and of self.  It sits outside the old entrance of the Erie Art Museum in Erie, Pennsylvania.  The museum’s collection is small but nice, the new wing is beautiful and I even am proud to have briefly worked there.  However, I would shudder at the thought if going inside if I only saw this sculpture without knowing that the Erie Art Museum is such a nice place.

Art I Hate and Why: Fernando Botero's "Man on Horse"

Nationality: Columbian
Born-Died: 1932-

Creation Date: 1992

Size: 25.125 x 34.875 inch (63.8 x 88.5cm)

Media: Bronze

Location: The Israel Museum, Jeruselem, Israel

 
Not only is Botero a mediocre artist, (this is one of his better works) but his view of man is hate-filled buried in cutesiness—a kind of defeated smile of acceptance in regards to what he believes is stupid and evil.  When I see artists ridicule the good, the serious, the capable, the majestic, the beautiful, the graceful, the heroic, I don’t believe it is because those artists have some sort of special knowledge about the nature of human beings.  Alternatively I think it is because they have a view of themselves as bad, absurd, incapable, lowly, ugly, graceless and cowardly.  To me, that is sad. 

Eugène Delacroix's "The Massacre at Chios"

Nationality: French
Creation Date: 1824
Size: 164 x 139 inch (419 x 354 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Louvre, Paris, France



The history of the actual massacre at Chios is incredibly tragic. From my understanding, by 1822 the Ottoman empire had occupied Greece for four centuries. When a Greek rebellion began, soldiers from the Ottoman Empire responded by landing troops on the island of Chios, killing, raping, plundering, torturing and burning as they went. After two weeks they had killed tens of thousands of Greeks (one source said as many as 90,000 civilians), enslaving and exiling tens of thousands more. This is one of two major paintings by Delacroix that responded to the tragedies inflicted upon the Greeks by the Ottomans.