This morning, I stumbled across the website of a museum in Massachusetts called the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA). And while I can't stand bad art, in going through a gallery of their portrait collection, I began to question my own ability to differentiate bad art from good art. I bank on my abilities as an artist, and if I can't tell the bad from the good, then maybe my own isn't as good as I thought. Thereby in the midst of a panic, I was calmed by the amusing critiques the museum gave of each painting. Here are two of my favorites.
Lucy In the Field With Flowers
Oil on canvas by Unknown24" x 30"
Acquired from trash in Boston
Dear Sirs,!Bravissimo! Thank you! "Lucy" is clearly the key work in the collection. As with all great art, extended viewing reveals endless layers of mysteries: What is Norman Mailer's head doing on an innocent grandma's body, and are those crows or F-16's skimming the hills?
Madonna and Child III
Oil on canvas by A. Fontaine, 195716" x 20"
Acquired from Hyde Park antique store
A work of undisputed tenderness which places the spiritual above the physical through careful disregard for details of the human form.
