The Museum of Bad Art

Strangers!  Let's broaden our minds.  Lawrence?

Yes, I do believe it's time to make a visit to the art museum.  And for that purpose, I have located the Museum of Bad Art.

First of all, yes, it is an actual place.  In fact, it's three different places as you can see from the website link above, and you can visit one or all three next time you're in Massachusetts.  I plan to...if I ever really do go to Massachusetts.  Secondly, the idea of the museum is to house art that is so bad that it's good.  For example, a piece may have a brilliant subject but have rather lackluster execution.  Or they are cases or pure artistic passion, but committed in the hands of someone who is not yet quite competent with the brush.

As with anything in the realm of art, "bad" or for that matter "good" are subjective terms.  It is all in the eye of the beholder.  There are pieces in the MoBA that I find most interesting.  For example, the piece in the middle row, far left side in this New York Times article that the bastards won't let me download and post here.

Or take a look at this selection that I rather admire (sure it looks like an art project from Rensselaer Central High School, but it's got a monolith):

Another fault that art aficionados find with a few of these paintings is that their intent is not clear.  There is no salient message that the artist is attempting to get across:

More often than not, one of the primary criticisms that "arty" types have for a piece of work is that it doesn't take enough chances.  That is one of my main gripes for so-called "outsider," avante garde art as well.  But in the case of MoBA exhibits, I believe that many of them did take chances.  The artists did do something different.  It just didn't turn out the way they had it in their head or it was not to the palate of the art world.  

I can live with either one.

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