A museum says they gave an artist $84,000 in cash to use in artwork. He delivered blank canvases and titled them “Take the Money and Run.”
modern art
In 2016, a man left his glasses…
In 2016, a man left his glasses at an art museum. Shortly after, observers gathered and began taking photos thinking it was art.
James Franco once created an invisible…
James Franco once created an invisible sculpture called ‘Fresh Air’. It was described as an endless supply of oxygen. Someone actually bought the ‘sculpture’ for $10,000.
Le Bateau by Henri Matisse
Le Bateau (“The Boat”) by Henri Matisse, caused a minor stir when the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which housed it, hung the work upside-down for 47 days in 1961 until Genevieve Habert, a stockbroker, noticed the mistake and notified a guard.
Chinese artist He Yunchang believes in suffering for his art…
Chinese artist He Yunchang believes in suffering for his art. His performance pieces have included:
- Having one of his ribs removed so that he could wear it as a necklace.
- Having a doctor cut a one meter gash down the side of his body, without anesthesia.
- Encasing himself in a cube of quick-setting concrete for 24 hours.
- Trying to “cut a river in half” by suspending himself above it from a crane while holding a knife in the water, as blood dripped from cuts in his arms.
- Painting the fingernails and toenails of 10 mannequins with his own blood.
- Staring at 10,000 watt bulbs to damage his eyesight
- Burning his clothes while wearing them.
In 2005 a blind experiment was conducted …
In 2005 a blind experiment was conducted in which artists and an art historian couldn’t differentiate between modern art masterpieces and works by 4-year-olds. An artist described one of the children’s pieces as “a competent execution of abstract expressionism.” Here is Willem de Kooning’s “A tree in Naples” which is mentioned in the article.