Althouse: "[Hunter] Biden has described his art as 'literally keeping me sane,' and more than one painting here features text..."

November 5, 2021

"[Hunter] Biden has described his art as 'literally keeping me sane,' and more than one painting here features text..."

"... detailing his addiction and recovery. ('He began to write a new story,' reads the trippy self-portrait.) The painting of the bald figure bears a citation of the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides. Mr. Biden has scrawled these quotes, curiously, in a gold paint marker, the sort of craft-shop instrument beloved of scrapbookers. The gold marker recurs throughout this show, outlining bare trees and mountain ridges, rounded Gaelic characters, and quite a few snakes, some of which appear to have been done with a stencil. The snakes may have some personal significance, molting and rebirth and all that; the symbology may also, more than anything, just suggest being a dude. All of this feels rather random, rather personal, rather ingenuous."

From "Hunter Biden: Emotionally Honest, Generically Smooth/The president’s son has turned to art as a career. 'The Journey Home' is his first solo exhibition" by Jason Farago (NYT).

32 comments:

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Poor guy. Lives in a 10 million dollar mansion in the Hollywood hills. Drives fancy ultra expensive cars... does not need to work a real job. All on money obtained
thru connections by "the big guy". It's our money he's living off of.

ah - but he got a pass from our corrupt press.

So glad he is kept sane.; 11/5/21, 6:12 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Like how the press included the word "Honest"?

LOL -; 11/5/21, 6:14 PM
Chris Lopes said...: Yeah, "art", that's what he's selling.; 11/5/21, 6:15 PM
RMc said...: Can't make this stuff up, folks.; 11/5/21, 6:17 PM
Big Mike said...: @Althouse, you have a BFA. Is his art any good?; 11/5/21, 6:18 PM
Lurker21 said...: From "Hunter Biden: Emotionally Honest, Generically Smooth/The president’s son has turned to art as a career. 'The Journey Home' is his first solo exhibition" by Jason Farago

"Farrago" is a great word and great last name for a Times writer.; 11/5/21, 6:25 PM
Howard said...: https://bergesgallery.com/our-artists/hunter-biden

See all of his paintings outside the NYT firewall. I'm quite surprised it's very good, well composed work.; 11/5/21, 6:25 PM
gspencer said...: Hunter has turned to art.

Grifting has many dimensions.; 11/5/21, 6:38 PM
rehajm said...: Nowadays I have to resist the urge to respond to every post with Jesus. Fuck you all

Do better…; 11/5/21, 6:40 PM
Assistant Village Idiot said...: Emotionally honest. Well, that's the important thing.; 11/5/21, 6:48 PM
gilbar said...: literally keeping him sane?
By providing $cash$ to buy more drugs and hookers?

Or just by providing him with $cash$, in general?; 11/5/21, 6:49 PM
mezzrow said...: I cannot help but add an absent r to the author's name. Not his fault.

All the news that's fit to print.; 11/5/21, 6:54 PM
Achilles said...: Obvious corruption is obvious.

Democrats are just shitty people.; 11/5/21, 7:00 PM
Kristo Miettinen said...: Rumor has it his paintings are "worth" up to $500,000.

So why don't we stop the plan of giving illegal aliens $450,000 for being turned away at the border, and instead give them each a Hunter Biden painting?

While continuing to turn them back at the border.

Kristo Miettinen; 11/5/21, 7:05 PM
Sebastian said...: "[Hunter] Biden has described his art as 'literally keeping me sane,'"

So he was sane to begin with? When?

"... detailing his addiction and recovery."

Really? Looks like he's still addicted to trafficking on his name for $$. That's one addiction no Biden can shake.; 11/5/21, 7:40 PM
Gahrie said...: O FFS..do we really have to endure these pathetic attempts to legitimize Hunter's corruption? Nobody every tried to pretend that Billy's beer tasted good.; 11/5/21, 8:01 PM
Scot said...: Bookmark this farrago. Let us see if Hunter's career path is still paved with Merlot & brie after Joey returns to his nude bathing in Delaware. By Amtrak!

If I were a journalist, I would ask Hunter, "Who was Parmenides?"; 11/5/21, 8:29 PM
doctrev said...: I don't really care. If anything, I approve of even mediocre art. It's better than his previous hobbies.

What isn't okay is his dried-up whore of a stepmother and senile pedo father trading them for money. It's absolute influence peddling and literally an emolument. It would be one thing if he had a previous career as a skilled artist: he didn't.

Everyone else has already noted that, though. Honestly, I despise the Bidens much more for letting the Bloomberg/ Garland types absolutely destroy America than I dislike their relatively manageable financial corruption.; 11/5/21, 8:58 PM
William said...: I read the review. The critique is subtle and polite, but it's definitely negative. Hunter is a performance artist. The response of critics and the public is part of the performance. It's very rare that an artist of Hunter's talents rates a show in Soho, a review in The Times, and six figure scales, but there you are.....So far as art as therapy goes, I'm inclined to think that such attention and income as Hunter has received from this show will tend to foster grandiosity rather than catharsis in Hunter's troubled soul. Hunter should move on to nude photography. He has shown an avocation for that. Lots more catharsis is accessible with nude photography than with abstract art.; 11/5/21, 9:02 PM
William said...: I just recently saw That Hamilton Woman, the movie starring Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Vivien Leigh was quite an actress. There's a close up of her face as she receives news of Nelson's (Olivier's) last battle. Her face moves from anxiety to horror and onto grief without her uttering a single word.....Leigh created or defined some great characters: Scarlet O'Hara, Blanche Dubois, Anna Karenina, and Emma Hart Hamilton. I would have liked to see her play Becky Sharp. I think Thackeray used Lady Hamilton as a prototype for Becky Sharp in the way that Margaret Mitchell used Becky Sharp as a prototype for Scarlet O'Hara.....Anyway, That Hamilton Woman is definitely worth watching. It was said to be Churchill's favorite film. That might more be due to the fact that he wrote some of Nelson's patriotic speeches rather than Leigh's sterling performance.; 11/5/21, 9:20 PM
Michael K said...: Money laundering is a better description of his new "career."; 11/5/21, 9:23 PM
William said...: Morality changes over time. Nelson was the most beloved war hero of the Napoleonic wars, but now they want to take his statue down from Trafalgar Square. Nelson never owned any slaves, but he wrote to a friend in the West Indies that if selected for the House of Lords he would do his utmost to support and protect that peculiar institution. So that's reason for cancelling him.....Nelson had his arm mangled during an attempted shore landing. He was bleeding out. They were rowing him back to his ship to get the wound cared for. He insisted, however, that the skiff stop to pick up other wounded tars prior to taking him back. There was more to Nelson than just his victories and naval genius, but those victories saved Britain and her Navy....Napoleon had sent any army to re-institute slavery in Haiti, and he succeeded in re-establishing it on Martinique and Guadalupe. I suppose you could argue that Nelson's naval victories were what allowed Britain and her Navy to later suppress the slave trade.....Does Nelson's affirmation of slavery negate all the good points of his character and genius? Why don't they go after Napoleon?; 11/5/21, 9:40 PM
chickelit said...: Ughs all around Althouse. Hitler was an artist too. No need to venerate Hunter just because you call him an "artist." Sometimes even so-called artists are villains.; 11/5/21, 10:49 PM
Gospace said...: Emotionally honest? He's a druggie! There isn't a one of them who is emotionally honest. They're all manipulative bastards (or the other B-word).

To go retro- looks like the "reporter" is trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Honestly- how much more pandering and covering up for the Biden crime family can the MSM engage in?; 11/6/21, 12:20 AM
Lyle said...: Hunter Biden's art is the Amway product of the near half-century old Biden political machine.; 11/6/21, 6:29 AM
Tank said...: Awash in BS.; 11/6/21, 6:40 AM
wendybar said...: Maybe instead of paying illegals $450,000 each, Hunter could give them all one of his masterpieces!!!; 11/6/21, 6:43 AM
wendybar said...: Sorry Kristo Miettinen!!

I posted my comment, before I read the comments. Great minds think alike!!; 11/6/21, 6:45 AM
Kevin said...: Dear NYT:

No one said Hunter can’t make his art.

No one said Hunter can’t show his art.

People are upset Hunter is selling his art.

If it’s truly good, it will sell just as well after Joe leaves office.; 11/6/21, 7:23 AM
Achilles said...: Kristo Miettinen said...

Rumor has it his paintings are "worth" up to $500,000.

So why don't we stop the plan of giving illegal aliens $450,000 for being turned away at the border, and instead give them each a Hunter Biden painting?

While continuing to turn them back at the border.

Kristo Miettinen

This is he best comment I have seen in a while.; 11/6/21, 7:54 AM
Lurker21 said...: The painting of the bald figure bears a citation of the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides.

Someone Hunter found out about when looking up how to spell Parmesan in the dictionary?; 11/6/21, 8:28 AM
Robert Cook said...: Hunter Biden's paintings look pretty good to me. My question: did he actually paint them?; 11/7/21, 4:57 PM