Should Art Be Thrown in the Trash to Become Art?
A Dutch Museum Recovers Artwork Mistaken for Trash
A Dutch museum recently recovered an artwork that looked like two empty beer cans - after a staff member accidentally threw it in the bin.
One man’s art is another man’s trash…
Is the cleaner to blame for not recognizing your art and thinking it was garbage? Are you to blame for not making it clear enough, leading the cleaner to throw it out? Is art to blame for becoming trash?
At the very least, people would start writing a lot about it - the art that ended up in the trash. Millions of people would learn about you, see your other works, and become curious.
I’m lucky that my mother is embarrassed by my art and takes down my paintings when her granddaughters come to visit. It’s kind of like throwing them in the trash, but no one will write about it except me...
Maybe you could share this story on social media or in conversations with friends? Thanks.
This strange trend could soon become the most profitable profession in the art world - hiring someone to throw your painting in the trash. We’ll hire “art vandals” to toss selected works into the garbage, generating buzz and making sure your art gets noticed.
You might not even need to pay for it - just upset some eco-activists, and they might pour soup on your work. At least you'll have something to eat. It’s worse if they throw paint on it, but the work will almost certainly gain value—if not among collectors, then at least among eco-movement critics.
By the way, the cleaner was lucky the paintings weren’t made by a woman, a feminist, a Black person, an LGBTQ+ member, or an Asian artist. Otherwise, instead of gaining fame and becoming a popular art critic (lol), he’d probably face scorn, judgment, and maybe even jail time.
It’s a shame that, in this case, the real artist becomes the one who committed the act of vandalism. This is the problem - the creator is once again pushed into the background, and the artwork stops being the artist’s because it can’t exist outside of the trash…
A Dutch Museum Recovers Artwork Mistaken for Trash
A Dutch museum recently recovered an artwork that looked like two empty beer cans - after a staff member accidentally threw it in the bin.
One man’s art is another man’s trash…
Is the cleaner to blame for not recognizing your art and thinking it was garbage? Are you to blame for not making it clear enough, leading the cleaner to throw it out? Is art to blame for becoming trash?
At the very least, people would start writing a lot about it - the art that ended up in the trash. Millions of people would learn about you, see your other works, and become curious.
I’m lucky that my mother is embarrassed by my art and takes down my paintings when her granddaughters come to visit. It’s kind of like throwing them in the trash, but no one will write about it except me...
Maybe you could share this story on social media or in conversations with friends? Thanks.
This strange trend could soon become the most profitable profession in the art world - hiring someone to throw your painting in the trash. We’ll hire “art vandals” to toss selected works into the garbage, generating buzz and making sure your art gets noticed.
You might not even need to pay for it - just upset some eco-activists, and they might pour soup on your work. At least you'll have something to eat. It’s worse if they throw paint on it, but the work will almost certainly gain value—if not among collectors, then at least among eco-movement critics.
By the way, the cleaner was lucky the paintings weren’t made by a woman, a feminist, a Black person, an LGBTQ+ member, or an Asian artist. Otherwise, instead of gaining fame and becoming a popular art critic (lol), he’d probably face scorn, judgment, and maybe even jail time.
It’s a shame that, in this case, the real artist becomes the one who committed the act of vandalism. This is the problem - the creator is once again pushed into the background, and the artwork stops being the artist’s because it can’t exist outside of the trash…