That's nice.

[Adam]

Rapist’s painting hung in the White House

A painting of President Barack Obama by a shock artist with a rape fetish hung in the White House for at least two years.

[....]

But Choe also has a rape fetish. On the podcast that he co-hosts with porn star Asa Akira, he recounted the story of forcing a female masseuse to perform oral sex on him after she repeatedly said no. He described the scene to listeners: “I take the back of her head and push it down on my dick and she doesn’t do it and I go, ‘Open your mouth, open your mouth.’”

His female co-host immediately said, “You raped.” After Choe laughed, Akira continued, “Eww, you’re basically telling us that you’re a rapist now and the only way to get your dick really hard is rape,” to which Choe responded, “Yeah.”

The whole Ion interview with this fine, upstanding person who graces the walls of the White House.

[Gingersnap]

Most "acceptable" art hasn't had a moral dimension for over 100 years. At some point in time the West decided that real art was mostly in the domain of failures and degenerates so we had to put up with their charming addictions and mental illnesses in order to get art.

No one cares if creative people are addicts or rapists or violent, raging psychotics. No one cares if they vomit at openings or pull up the dresses of patrons at showings. No one cares if they abuse children or insult the very people who pay them. No one cares.

It would be odd, indeed, if the people occupying the White House cared about any of this stuff.

[Billy Jingo]

Most "acceptable" art hasn't had a moral dimension for over 100 years. At some point in time the West decided that real art was mostly in the domain of failures and degenerates so we had to put up with their charming addictions and mental illnesses in order to get art.

No one cares if creative people are addicts or rapists or violent, raging psychotics. No one cares if they vomit at openings or pull up the dresses of patrons at showings. No one cares if they abuse children or insult the very people who pay them. No one cares.

It would be odd, indeed, if the people occupying the White House cared about any of this stuff.

You honestly think artists prior to whatever arbitrary date you set were all fine, well adjusted, upstanding citizens?

[Norm dePlume]

You honestly think artists prior to whatever arbitrary date you set were all fine, well adjusted, upstanding citizens?

That's just cutting your ear off to spite your face.

[Billy Jingo]

That's just cutting your ear off to spite your face.

I should have just run with her arbitrary date and do what I normally do and blame it Dada.

[Norm dePlume]

I should have just run with her arbitrary date and do what I normally do and blame it Dada.

I think you're letting Mama off the hook, there.

[scott]

You honestly think artists prior to whatever arbitrary date you set were all fine, well adjusted, upstanding citizens?

That's just cutting your ear off to spite your face.

Van Gogh did that to himself. There is a difference. Also, his art wasn't celebrated until after he died. We are now in a space where "artists" are celebrated for all their other proclivities outside of their actual work.

I could've done that Obama piece with photoshop. What makes it so great?

[Billy Jingo]

I could've done that Obama piece with photoshop. What makes it so great?

The Jackson Pollock argument? Or something close to it? I have seen people recreate works of art. I have done it myself for fun.

I guess the answer is, you didn't.

But that aside, meh. He should have left out the text. It conveys the message just fine without it.

[Norm dePlume]

Van Gogh did that to himself. There is a difference. Also, his art wasn't celebrated until after he died. We are now in a space where "artists" are celebrated for all their other proclivities outside of their actual work.

I could've done that Obama piece with photoshop. What makes it so great?

Yes, it's different. It's still pretty fucked up. And it still does not confer any sort of endorsement of an artist's personal lifestyle or mental state to hang a painting on the wall or to enjoy looking at it.

"This painting is very interesting to me. What do you think of it?"

"I don't know yet. I'm waiting for the background check on the artist. There is some indication he might have been rude to his mother."

[Norm dePlume]

You know that piano part at the end of "Layla"?

You like that? It's nice, isn't it?

That was written by Jim Gordon, who was the drummer for Derek and the Dominoes at the time. Later on, he killed his mother with a claw hammer.

[scott]

The Jackson Pollock argument? Or something close to it? I have seen people recreate works of art. I have done it myself for fun.

I guess the answer is, you didn't.

You know me better than that.

But that aside, meh. He should have left out the text. It conveys the message just fine without it.

I agree. I still don't see what makes this so good though. Art is art. If you like something, great. If not, well meh. What I don't get is how someone of such a terrible character is elevated when there are literally thousands of similar works from people that aren't rapists. There's nothing groundbreaking here.

This is similar to a friend of mine who is a TV producer. He's really just a regular guy when he's not "on." The problem is that people are not taken seriously in the art world unless there is something strange about us. Clean cut, professional, and ready to work are not celebrated or even acknowledged which means the product of the work (unless absolutely brilliant) isn't even noticed. My nephew struggles with the same thing and he's one of the current TWO handpicked models for Ralph Lauren's Black line. There needs to be a story, a "hook."

Once celebrities have their accolades then they are lauded for their professionalism and grit. Until then? Make the headlines for being stupid.

[scott]

You know that piano part at the end of "Layla"?

You like that? It's nice, isn't it?

That was written by Jim Gordon, who was the drummer for Derek and the Dominoes at the time. Later on, he killed his mother with a claw hammer.

The terrible torment doesn't denigrate the art, true. But the terrible torment doesn't create it either. Curt Cobain wasn't an artist so gifted that his passion outlived his body. Curt Cobain was a narcissistic drama queen with a heroin addiction (and and I guess he smelled that day). He didn't need to have all those demons in his life to be a proficient musician. Most of The Rolling Stones are still around today. What's the pool on Keith Richards?

[Gingersnap]

You honestly think artists prior to whatever arbitrary date you set were all fine, well adjusted, upstanding citizens?

Nope, I don't. There were a lot who had promise, became drunks or whatever, and found that their commissions and patrons dried up. Others kept a lid on things more or less by moving the more debauched episodes of their lives overseas or to some backwater (not an option today, of course). Some had had a progressive decline and when it became apparent in their life and in their work, they fell out of favor. Art history is littered with the wrecked careers of people.

But art today is not an inaccessible trade limited to the very lucky who were able to be apprenticed or come to the notice of a patron who then educated them appropriately.

Anybody can try their hand at it and a surprising number of people have some sort of talent. They can display their efforts online for anybody to see and to judge. So why do we only get public art that has been vetted by academic critics? Why is "serious art" guarded by social gatekeepers who have the sensitivity of blind drunks?

Human being are equipped from birth to detect quality and artistry. If we got rid of these taste-makers we might remember that.

[Gramps]

Californication

[Dallas]

And this is why Thomas Kincade was so popular.

~Dallas