June 23, 2020

Our art museum — the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art — boarded itself up and has repurposed the utilitarian protection into a surface for painting.

Is it art? That's a boring old question, but is art made under duress art? I think of the writer tortured to write in Stephen King's "Misery." I think of Scheherezade. I think of the old cowboy trick of shooting at a person's feet and shouting "Dance!" (Is the stepping crazily out of the way of bullets properly termed a "dance"?).

Ah, but the museum isn't doing the art. It's bringing in the artists and saying Go ahead, draw on my wounds.

"Stop":

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"Power":

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"... fucking for virginity... the path to a deeper heart..."

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Butterflies, a pear-sized teardrop, and hair on fire:

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Exulting in the inculcation of a 5-year-old:

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"The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner":

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A long view of the side of the museum:

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Closeup shows a woman's head split down the center, revealing a starry sky within:

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54 comments:

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Some muses are not a-mused (NSFW).

Mark said...

Is it art?

It's Democrat America -- things all boarded up and looking like crap in a near war zone.

Wa St Blogger said...

It seems to me that today art is that which is created to convey an approved message. If it conveys an unapproved message it needs to be destroyed. It used to be, ironically enough, that an image of an un-approved message was more arty than that of an approved message. In essence the un-approved was the approved. The people who once approved of the un-approved are now in the position to dis-approve the un-approved. Which is to say, one person's art is another person's violence and it all depends on whether it was created by a Hutu or a Tutsi.

Gahrie said...

When this is all over, they'll take the plywood down, frame it, and hang it on the walls.

Mark said...

FBI reports that the noose found in Bubba Wallace's garage was a pull rope that had been there since last year.

jaydub said...

Why was "Exulting in the inculcation of a 5-year-old" applied to only one of those classical examples of neo-infantilistic bed wetting and not to all of them? Credit should be given where credit is due.

Todd Roberson said...

That's cute. Seems less "rioty" and "boarded-uppy" that way.

n.n said...

This is the first time that NAACP's black whore... hole? has been observed. Social progress.

Lindsey said...

It’s a good thing all the museums are closed. Imagine what they would do to paintings and statues in the museums.

Todd Roberson said...

We don't don't have a lot going for us in Indianapolis...except we HAD and extremely nice downtown until about 3 weeks ago. Now everything at ground level for a 6 block radius around Monument Circle is destroyed. Mayor(D) and governor(R) did nothing to stop the destruction, except the idiot mayor declared a 8PM - 6AM county-wide curfew for a week which was completely ignored by everyone except law-abiding citizens and the businesses they own. For example, my 17-year-old daughter who lifeguards at a private pool (which the mayor deigned to allow to be open) had to come home early every night and lose work to abide by the 8PM curfew. (Note it's light here until nearly 10PM in the summer.) Meanwhile, protesters downtown completely ignored the curfew every night and met no response from the city. The governor hid in his mansion during the entire disgraceful spectacle.

The current solution to all the destruction downtown is to paint all the plywood with works of art, which sounds nice except that most of the artworks are amateur depictions that preach at me about what a racist I am (I, by the way, happen to be a white guy). Not a very inviting environment, especially a city whose main public revenue source (other than the cancelled Indy 500) is a formerly brisk convention business. I also am convinced that the plywood is going nowhere soon since to remove it would be ...

Now we're told that (surprisingly!) the county government is facing a revenue shortfall and will likely need to raise taxes (again) this year. Hard to imagine revenue shortfalls when you allow the core of the small business community to be destroyed. If there's a more anti-business mayor than the idiot in Indianapolis I'll gladly eat my hat.

Hard to see how this will end well in Marion County Indiana. d

Josephbleau said...

When nothing else is left, art is all you got left.

Unknown said...

its religious art

Birkel said...

I hope the city of Madison never reopens.
The people who live there voted for this.
I say let them have what they wanted.

I am a giver.

Gk1 said...

This will look like shit the longer it stays up as taggers and other low lifes scribble all over it. But it does provide the rest of us comedic relief as the lefties pretend they actually prefer living in a slum over what they used to have.

bagoh20 said...

Well, Well. It turns out, unexpectedly of course, that the noose in the NASCAR room was bullshit. It was just a rope door handle that has been there sine Oct. 2019, long before anyone knew who would get assigned that room. The FBI sent 15 agents to investigate this brain fart. Our nation is full of people who have lost their fucking minds over race. A problem throughout history, but which has never been less of a real problem in any nation anywhere at anytime in history than here and now. Black people have never been safer or had more opportunities anywhere anytime, including and especially Africa today. Calm your asses down, people Stop, think, question, and think again. Isn't this nation and our communities worth at least that little effort? There is no boogieman. That shadow in the corner is just a shadow. Turn the lights on before you dive out the damn window.

Mr. Forward said...

I would like to know more about the art. Is it 1/2" or 3/4". Home Depot or Menard's?

wild chicken said...

This is a revival of Soviet Realism, yes?

Michael K said...

Graffiti is the new "art."

Yancey Ward said...

"I think of the writer tortured to write in Stephen King's "Misery."

Maybe when the rioters return they can burn the product, too.

Josephbleau said...

The national gallery of art in DC will have to let minority artists spray paint over the white European art.

When I was 5 I had to walk to kindergarten by myself and I was told that a policeman would help me if I was lost. According to the plywood art 5 year olds are now taught in the intellectual city of Madison, that policemen will divide you up between black and white, and kill all the black kids. What kind of a nation will we see in 20 years. Hopefully the children will rebel against their parents.

Josephbleau said...

The national gallery of art in DC will have to let minority artists spray paint over the white European art.

When I was 5 I had to walk to kindergarten by myself and I was told that a policeman would help me if I was lost. According to the plywood art 5 year olds are now taught in the intellectual city of Madison, that policemen will divide you up between black and white, and kill all the black kids. What kind of a nation will we see in 20 years. Hopefully the children will rebel against their parents.

FullMoon said...

Well, Well. It turns out, unexpectedly of course, that the noose in the NASCAR room was bullshit. It was just a rope door handle that has been there sine Oct. 2019, long before anyone knew who would get assigned that room.

Picture is from 2019, but rope may have been there longer, but no earlier photo readily available. Most other garages had same style rope attached to garage doors.

Yancey Ward said...

To riff on a comment above, "Art is just another word for nothing left to loot."

Yancey Ward said...

It occurs to me that you could paralyze federal law enforcement by buying a thousand feet of rope, and leave fake nooses everywhere you go.

Dude1394 said...

Looks like a third world shithole. Thanks democrats.

alanc709 said...

Propaganda for the masses.

BUMBLE BEE said...

That is art and farts are a symphony.

tim maguire said...

Art is whatever you say it is. Good art creates an emotional reaction. Virtually all political art sucks because it is obvious, simplistic, unimaginative, predictable, and (usually) amateurish.

Some of the work in your photos doesn't suck.

Banjo said...

Um, no. Let them dive out the damned window. And let's get behind Trump's
EO providing for fines and imprisonment for destroying or defacing statues with an exemption for those modern efforts that offend the eye.

narciso said...

But lets shut everything down


https://mobile.twitter.com/SchantzCheri/status/1275501496990420994

YoungHegelian said...

All Art Must Be Made To Serve The Revolution!

There's nothing original in any of this. Nothing. This is the same re-hashing of the left-wing fantasies of the 20th C that ended up with 100 million dead bodies.

Nobody's doing "Nuance" here. Let's not pretend otherwise.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I am so completely sick of all of this. The more it get pushed at me, with all the "pretty little signs' and canned slogans, the less I care. Sick of it.

Fake hate crimes. Violence that ruins the lives of innocent people. Cities and history destroyed. Dancing on the ashes of other peoples lives. No deviation from the thought police.

Is race a real thing. Sure. Is there bigotry. Yes ...on ALL sides. Are there bad people out there? Yes. There are good people too....but they don't count. Do reforms in police departments need to be made. Yes.

And what? We are all supposed to grovel at the feet of some unknown amorphous group of people because someone somewhere in a time unknown did some bad things? Flagellate ourselves because a century and half ago slavery was finally officially ended? Slavery by people hundreds of years ago.....which many of us including the victims of the current violence had no connection.

Silence is violence? Well...they'd better hope that some of us remain silent because the alternative is going to be very loud and not nearly as pretty as those signs tacked up on other people's property.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Geriatric possessive or White people possessive "our"?

Trick question: All whites (yes even those stupid little white babies) are racists who think and feel they possess everything they see, especially black bodies.

n.n said...

you could paralyze federal law enforcement by buying a thousand feet of rope, and leave fake nooses everywhere you go

And diversity liars (pun intended). Tell them that the rope is attached to a duck that lays golden eggs.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"To riff on a comment above, "Art is just another word for nothing left to loot.'"

Ha.

GingerBeer said...

Andy Warhol famously said, “Art is what you can get away with.” That quote seems to perfectly encapsulate the murals on MMoCA. In times past, no one would dare permit the sophomoric screeds slapped on the sides of a museum or storefront. But in the future, no one will dare permit their removal. Madison, welcome to the Left's favorite period, The New Normal.

Howard said...

Very triggering.

Nichevo said...

"Is it art? That's a boring old question, but is art made under duress art?"


Is law made under duress law?

Is justice made under duress justice?

Is politics made under duress politics?

cubanbob said...

Comrade Stalin looks up from hell and smiles at his American grandchildren. Socialist realism art.

Gospace said...

IIRC, some jurisdictions have made it unlawful for building owners to paint over "street art",formerly known as graffiti, because it's art. And now these same cities are allowing modern day barbarians to tear down art they disapprove of, without consequence. With many Democrat, let me emphasize, DEMOCRAT, politicians cheering them on.

Butkus51 said...

Isn't Madison Wisconsin named after a man whos family owned over 100 slaves? Interesting.

Chuck said...

I am pretty sure that it is Bob Marley/Bunny Livingstone/Peter Tosh whom we can thank for the entry of the Isaiah passage, “Stone that the builder refused...” into current popular culture:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mUswekQOChg

Lhx said...

Not art. I kind of like the last one though. It reminds me of Funkadelic's Cosmic Slop. Inner city version of steal your face. Fantastic. Guy was from Chicago, died recently.

Ice Nine said...

Tedious. Now I've seen all the Negro art I need to see for, say, six months or so.

Drago said...

Howard: "Very triggering."

Just wait until a helo flies overhead!

effinayright said...

Closeup shows a woman's head split down the center, revealing a starry sky within:
**************

That's not a starry sky.

That's a hard vacuum.

Quaestor said...

I notice there's a lot of space in that black woman's noggin, but no evidence of brain.

Is that me being a racist? Or the artist?

Quaestor said...

If it weren't by fucking, where would the virgins come from?

Michael said...

Eyesores. Really horrible display of talentless doodling. Embarrassing that it is encouraged, sanctioned, praised. It is crap on stilts.
Although I suppose in its own way is a perfect memorial for the dead criminal now sainted in an ugly and amateurish way.

Craig said...

The art curators must tolerate this because BLM perspectives cannot be criticized in such circles. But I bet this defacement secretly drives them crazy.

Achilles said...

So most Democrat controlled areas in the country have been turned into a 3rd world shit holes where you have plywood windows and shootings are skyrocketing.

I am sure this bodes well for them getting elected.

stephen cooper said...

I do not want to think about the evil in a person's heart that would allow them to "create art" under such violent circumstances.

Todd said...

How is it expected for a society to move in a desired direction and to "heal" when those that are driving all of this have based their entire movement/protest/riots on lies? None of this is about justice (as that is ALREADY in progress) and the ONLY change these people want is for them to now be in charge. Same rules, just different rulers.

Biff said...

Why board up the museum? I was told that adding your own "art" to existing "art" is a smart, authentic way to have a conversation across time and culture. The brave, progressive thing to do would be to open the doors and to keep them open, unguarded, 24 hours a day. For art!