You see the appropriateness: It's a beach scene.
Hugh did three others—all beach-related—and got a comment from a renter saying that, although the house was comfortable enough, the “art work” (she put it in quotes) was definitely not family-friendly. As the mother of young children, she had taken the paintings down during her stay, and said that if he wanted her to return he’d definitely have to rethink his décor. As if they were Hustler centerfolds!Prudery is funny. It would be more interesting, though, if the objection had been feminist. Then it would be harder for New Yorker readers to look down on the humble renters. There's male gaze coming from that man out there in the water and you can say that the we see like him, with the women's bodies distorted and rearranged to suit his desires.
ADDED: I'm not saying the feminist analysis would be correct, only that someone doing feminist analysis could come up with a hostile interpretation. I can also see how you could claim this is a feminist painting, full of female empowerment and actively excluding the male gaze. That vulva is pointed away from him. His body is entirely covered by the water. And the women's elongated arms look like dangerous weapons.
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73 comments:
It's but ugly but I find it hard to even make out people much less nudes.
Of course I'm a philistine who wouldn't know "fine art" (tm) or fart, if it but me on the ass
John Henry
Butt ugly
John Henry
I didn’t necessarily recognize that third face as male.
Playing with toy boats is generally little boy stuff, so having grotesque adult female (feminized?) characters doing it, and the fact that the copyist is a gay male, makes possible another level of prude (woke) interpretation.
Prudery may be funny but feminism is hilarious.
Shorter Althouse: it’s fine with the elites if you object, as long as your objection furthers their interests.
@tim
I'm showing you the actual Picasso. There is no image of Hugh's copy, but it is said to look like a professional forgery, so the relevant sexual orientation is Picasso's (other than inferences about the *selection* of that particular image for the purpose of decorating that particular house).
email to the landlord:
As a Sexual Assault SURVIVOR, i was TRIGGERED by the horrific depictions of RAPE! that you forced on my being.
I DEMAND! that you Burn this house down; And refund my rent check, or...
I will command the hordes of Social Justice Warriors down on you
I am a VICTIM, that means that You MUST obey my Every Command
We are the Victims, my friends
And we'll keep on protesting, till the end
We are the Victims
We are the Victims
No time for winners
'Cause we are the Victims
Of the world
jaydub said... Prudery may be funny but feminism is hilarious.
How many feminists does it take, to screw in a light bulb?
THAT'S NOT FUNNY
Are you sure that’s not a whale?
At least somebody noticed the art Hugh went to so much trouble to provide.
Some people like their art to be background music at low volume. Others want to be jamming on air guitar, so to speak. It's a spectrum.
Or maybe she caught her 13 year old jerking off in front of it, but decided to skip over that detail in her complaint.
Headline: Rich Guys Mock Artistic Tastes of Paying Guests.
What a pair of pricks and ingrates. Aren’t they rich enough already?
on a serious note, could a renter just complain that the "artwork" was hideously ugly?
My sister rents out her second house in Durango, Colo; NUMEROUS renters commented (complained) about the artwork she had put up; which was as bland, and unoffensive as anything (she replaced the boring artwork with even more boring landscape photos).
The Truth IS: Renters are going to complain. And IF you're going to put up weird "artwork"; at least put up a sign next to it, saying that it is a Picasso.
Put a little sign next to it that identifies it as a Picasso AND add a ridiculous price to purchase, like they do in some galleries, that ought to shut the complainers up.
Given the description and location I'm guessing they won't have any trouble renting the place if this woman and her family go elsewhere next year.
Our Beloved Professor Althouse said...
There is no image of Hugh's copy, but it is said to look like a professional forgery,
it is said, by WHO? Oh, THAT'S RIGHT! by the 'artist's lover. The Man that is Sleeping with the 'artist', SAYS that the 'artist's works are SUPER GOOD!!!
and we Know that's True; because He Makes a Point of NOT SHOWING ANY PHOTOS of the crappy 'artwork' his boyfriend made.
Aside from the fact that Picasso's are weird looking, and NOT everyone's cup of tea
"As the mother of young children, she had taken the paintings down during her stay"
She probably finds Rorscharch tests salacious.
That vulva is pointed away from him
Shows what I know about art. I thought that was a toy boat.
In The Far Country Nevil Shute tells of a prosperous Australian couple out to buy a nice painting for their living room:
The last exhibition that they visited that morning was of paintings and sculpture by the same artist; at the door a newspaper cutting informed them that the artist was a genius at the interpretation of Australia. The centre of the floor was occupied by a large block of polished mulga wood with a hole in it, of no recognizable shape or form, poised at eye level on a stand that you might admire it better. Beneath it was the title, Design for Life.
"Like that one to take home?" asked Jack. He glanced at the catalogue. "It's only seventy-five guineas . . ."
The paintings were a little odd, because this artist was a Primitive, unable to paint or to draw, and hailed as a genius by people who ought to have known better. Purple houses that might have been drawn by a five-year-old child straggled drunkenly across vermilion streets that led to nowhere and meant nothing; men with green faces struggled mysteriously and perhaps discreditably with ladies who had square blue breasts.
"That's a nice one . . ." said Jack thoughtfully.
Jane said, "Let's get out of here. People must be mad if they like things like that."
Out in the street he said, "There's another gallery in Bourke Street, up by William Street or somewhere."
Jane said, "I want a cup of tea."
They turned into a cafe; over the tea she said that she was through with picture galleries. "I know what I want," she said, "but it's not here. I want a picture that an ordinary person can enjoy, not someone who's half-mad. I'll find it someday."
He said tentatively, "There might be time to go down and pick up the Ford before dinner.......
"Let's do that," she said. "Take the taste of those foul paintings out of our mouths."
Full extract at http://www.nevilshute.org/Misc/nsart.php
John Henry (Who can't for the life of me understand the attraction of Picasso and the like)
Blogger Ignorance is Bliss said...
That vulva is pointed away from him
Shows what I know about art. I thought that was a toy boat.
I didn't even see the cunt until Ann pointed it out.
It took me a bit of time initially just to figure out that they were (hideously deformed and ugly) representations of people. With some contemplation I can make out some of the body parts.
John Henry
Never happened. Sedaris is a notorious fabulist. Yeah, stupid philistine breeder woman, what a retard she is, hoot hoot haha
Come on; adjust your BS meter.
Tank does not understand Picasso, or the appeal of this kind of Picasso. Picasso was actually a fine artist, and then he started with this stuff.
This is a nice book with a zillion Picasso illustrations by Karen Kleinfelder, on the male gaze and Picasso's relation to his models.
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo3635720.html
Overpriced new when available but might be in the university library.
Suite 347 at the end of his life has vulvas all over.
Pants probably has it right.
I can respect Picasso and his work because he proved, earlier in his career, that he was capable of painting.
Picasso isn't that hard to understand. Single stuff from all over in a single view. Stuff you remember as bits presented as bits.
Picasso jigsaw puzzles. Start with the blue bits.
So you don't like the decor in the house you are staying in as a temporary renter? B&B I suppose.
Maybe the lady should travel with some large black sheets that she can drape over the offending parts of the decor so that like the Victorians she won't have her sensibilities assaulted by naked table legs and suggestive artwork.
I find Picasso's work to be unfathomably ugly and wouldn't have it in my house. But....that is not my house and it isn't hers either.
Rent elsewhere.
A lot of people look at Three Musicians without noticing the dog.
Two amorphous blobs playing with a toy sailboat and a third envious onlooker.
"he proved, earlier in his career, that he was capable of painting." True, he just found out that the money was better and the work easier to go with the "modern" style,left more time for romance and good food..
There is a lovely bronze of an exuberant nude woman in the sculpture garden of the Baltimore Museum of Art. When my wife was a Hopkins medical resident, I'd often take my toddlers to the BMA, as it was walking distance from our home. And every time I was there with the kiddos, I'd tell them to wave at the statue and say hello to Mommy, as if the Brancuso was modeled on my wife. This went on for about a year before my wife joined us on a walk to see the sculptures (80 hour weeks as residents, truly sucky).
So we walk through the gates and the kids immediately rush to the exuberant nude, waving their little hands up high and yelling "Hello, Mommy!" loud as they could. 20+ years later my wife still doesn't think this was funny.
Heterosexual family mistakingly rents beach house intended for fabulous gay weekends. Prig owners offended but take family’s money anyways then find things to write to themselves feel superior.
"Shows what I know about art. I thought that was a toy boat."
I agree that the boat is a vulva too, but I meant to refer to the actual, clearly articulated vulva on the figure on our left.
Some people might argue that the boat is a phallic symbol and the women have disconnected it from the man — who's lurking in the water — and are examining it with morbid curiosity.
It's unnerving the way they are holding it, manipulating it, when they do not have hands.
Is that Kilroy peeping over the horizon? He was everywhere.
"it is said, by WHO? Oh, THAT'S RIGHT! by the 'artist's lover. The Man that is Sleeping with the 'artist', SAYS that the 'artist's works are SUPER GOOD!!!..."
Yes, Sedaris's high opinion of his partner is presumably biased, but some of your language makes it seem as thought the relationship isn't that serious. But these 2 men have been together and apparently completely devoted to each other for nearly 30 years.
Much of the linked article is about their relationship. I recommend reading the entire thing.
At least the painting didn't shock her.
the boat is a phallic symbol
Boats don't penetrate, they skim. Both amorphous blobs are feminine, perhaps female. The painting has transgender qualities with phobic allusions.
That boat a slit in it.
The work of a professional forger would look like an original, not like the work of a forger.
I know Ann likes Sedaris, but I surely don't. Was that piece in the New Yorker supposed to be funny or interesting?
He's been with this guy for 30 years so why doesn't he marry him and make him an honest man? Millions were spent to legalize gay marriage and Sedaris doesn't think much of it. He'll be sorry when Hugh dies and leaves all of his money to the ACLU or some favorite lib cause. Global warming probably. But then again, Sedaris is rich.
I have no interest in the "plight" of a rich guy who owns a beach house in NC and lives in England.
When I used to listen to NPR in the last century, he would come on the radio. That voice! That voice whining about unfunny things. Him as an elf. Yuck, yuck.
I know this guy sells lots and lots of books. He's a favorite of liberals. I see him as the prototype East coast elite liberal. Totally out of touch with reality. He's the most uninteresting man in the world. He just writes about himself and his sad life. He's no Tom Wolfe. Now there was an artist.
Is our gracious hostess Herr professor doktor concern trolling Shouting Thomas?
Tcrosse: forgeries fool non-painters, mostly art historians, curators and restorers. The teaching of how to make a forgery is a very important component to a well-rounded fine arts painting education.
Is that a Martian peering over the horizon?
"David Sedaris" and "The New Yorker" in one sentence: Consider yourself warned, gentle reader.
"That vulva is pointed away from him"
The first rule of vulva handling is to always keep it pointed in a safe direction.
I didn't know the one standing was a woman until you pointed it out. Haha.
I do like the lurker. It's amusing.
There is a phenomenon we all see and recognize. It comes up all the time, especially in the writing and conversation of those who feel themselves to be elite. I call it “How great are we?” because the actual content can be replaced by that rhetorical question with no loss.
This anecdote is “How great are we?”
"The Truth IS: Renters are going to complain."
If they're complaining about problems with the accommodations, fine, (if valid); if they're complaining about the art on the walls, fuck 'em!
Pablo Picasso: on hallucinogenic drugs, or traumatic brain injury victim?
Discuss.
Ann's last point is a great one though. If the renter is real — doubtful but possible — she should reply to the New Yorker that what she objected to was the objectification of womyn. Sedaris would apologize instantly, and might even be ostracized by the New Yorker set.
We stayed at an AirBnB lodging in Santa Fe, NM, last March. One piece of "art" there was a wine bottle wrapped in bubble-wrap and burlap, with some bamboo skewers hot-glued to it, and the whole was daubed with some brownish paint. I finally figured out that it was supposed to look like a windmill.
I didn't complain about the "art" in my review of the place.
@gilbar,
How many feminists does it take, to screw in a light bulb?
THAT'S NOT FUNNY
No, no, get it right!
How many feminists does it take, to screw in a light bulb?
100. One to screw in the bulb & 99 to write about how the bulb is oppressing the socket.
"Both amorphous blobs are feminine, perhaps female."
The figures are not "amorphous blobs," but distinct, sharp-edged geometric forms that are recognizably intended to be representative of human beings.
"That boat a slit in it."
Technically, it is a shadow cast by the mast, but, yes, it also resembles a vaginal slit.
"Pablo Picasso: on hallucinogenic drugs, or traumatic brain injury victim?"
Neither. A talented artist having fun with artistic play, reshaping reality to please himself. I'm hot and cold on Picasso: he produced a good amount of work I like, and just as much that leaves me indifferent. This painting is pleasing, with a muted color scheme that conveys serenity and interesting shapes that are fun to look at.
I still can't find the vulva. Is it the thing that looks like a coin slot below the pregnant belly?
And just what IS that periscope coming over the horizon?
But the artist censored all of the pubic hair. That's something. Was there a mirror on the bedroom's ceiling? Beach front condos remain the best seduction tool ever invented. Which is how the young kids arrived on this earth. Just say thank you.
screw in a light bulb
Behind every great light bulb ("idea") is a great socket.
"I can also see how you could claim"
I can also see how you could claim anything, and in fact have. The advantage of art, and going to art school.
You could claim, as I would, that Picasso embodied the male gaze and that he was an a**hole and that his work stinks.
Hugh's skill as a forger may explain the oversupply of Picassos in private collections and public museums around the world.
It's a known fact which means it's likely bullshit rumor but anyways, Pablo Picasso was overloaded on testosterone his whole life. That's why Cucks don't like his work and think he must be crazy or on drugs. Entartete Kunst
Like I always say, even bad art is still art. Picasso sucks ass.
Re: Picasso and art in general
I don't particularly like Picasso, but this one is interesting in the use of the sandy colors, tonal shading against the blue of the water. Obviously these are women by the shapes used to convey breasts and other body parts in a geometric and cubic style. One woman looks to be pregnant.
He is a talented artist. Just no my cup of tea.
Art is in the eye of the beholder. Not something that I would necessarily want in my house, but not objectionable either.
If I wanted abstract-ish paintings with lush sexual innuendo....Georgia O'Keeffe is more my style.
If I wanted abstract-ish paintings with lush sexual innuendo....Georgia O'Keeffe is more my style.
And her paintings are pretty!
There's a Picasso print in my downstairs bathroom my wife bought at a Goodwill for a few pennies. It's one of his bullfighting scenes, and when I'm using the facility, I contemplate it.
Most of the time, I'm musing over how much detail I can fill in that he triggered with a few brush strokes. He's like the mechanic who's paid not to hit the engine with a hammer, but knows where to hit it.
So the more I look at this painting, the more I'm amused by it. I've gotten too old to worry about being offended, and there's so many paintings out there, why not do one in your own style?
I also enjoyed Sedaris' Christmas Stories, but I don't know if I can read him today.
Dear Ms. Prudington Mc Prude: I will, somehow, struggle through life without your business.
As to why Sedaris doesn’t marry Hugh, he said in his recent book “Calypso” that he doesn’t like the government getting involved in his personal life and that marriage would be “a step down.”
Little secret- Many of the rich people what buy the pricey art at Sothebys et al hire artists to paint good forgeries to hang in their homes while the originals go to the vault. Nobody is the wiser- except maybe their accountants...
Little secret- Many of the rich people what buy the pricey art at Sothebys et al hire artists to paint good forgeries to hang in their homes while the originals go to the vault. Nobody is the wiser- except maybe their accountants...
I've heard this is common but often wonder how the artist would feel about this and about the reproductions. Guess it would depend on the artist. Most of the good ones are dead, anyway.
I have a few prints of art works hanging in my apartment. They're better than bare walls, but I don't think they much increase the quality of my life. I have a nice mirror. That attracts the most attention and admiration from visitors and from myself. De gustibus......Off topic: The curator of Queen Elizabeth's art collection was a Soviet spy. This was dramatized in in The Crown. What wasn't mentioned was that he was a god-awful curator who purchased a lot of forgeries. He was much better as a living forgery than as an appraiser of art forgeries.. I have a vague sense that this is some kind of metaphor for art appreciation and life.
Does Sedaris equally dislike the government getting into my private life? From what I know of his politics the answer is no.
All of my paintings are done by friends who happen to be artists and by my husband. All are originals. ;-)
Agree that the Picasso is particularly ugly, and there's certainly sufficient justification for removing it just on aesthetic grounds.
The prurient nature of "La Baignade" seems pretty mild, and likely to be overlooked by prepubescent children. But the fact they only named one of the paintings seems like a bit of a tell. I wonder what other ones they "neglected" to mention?
mockturtle & Dust Bunny Queen: I am also fond of O'Keefe's work. Careful seeing and good use of materials.
She and Ansel Adams were friends and he photographed her occasionally. He was a terrible portraitist, but her personality comes through in a couple of them.
I like the painting, and I'd love it for a beach house. I can see why Sedaris puts up with Hugh's moods.
As to why Sedaris doesn’t marry Hugh, he said in his recent book “Calypso” that he doesn’t like the government getting involved in his personal life and that marriage would be “a step down.”
So Much for the Penumbra of a civil right.
She and Ansel Adams were friends and he photographed her occasionally. He was a terrible portraitist, but her personality comes through in a couple of them.
Especially the one with Orville Cox. Great photo.
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