[adamc]

Yeah, it seems unkind. What is the purpose here? To teach about art, using art that maybe was someone's learning attempt seems like a huge mistake (and is likely to scare away students). If you aren't teaching, why talk about bad art at all?

[nuclearnice3]

Here's a delightful and illuminating 6 minute video which explains some of the purpose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB6UhGbyXfE

Punchline at the end: "We don't say negative things about the art or the artist. Our stated goal is to collect, exhibit, and celebrate this art that would be appreciated nowhere else."

[brianleb]

>>"We don't say negative things about the art or the artist. Our stated goal is to collect, exhibit, and celebrate this art that would be appreciated nowhere else."

Perhaps this is a 'whoosh' moment for me, but it seems that by simply housing the art in the Museum of /Bad/ Art, you are certainly saying something quite negative about the art and the artist.

[washadjeffmad]

The "Bad" is just a playful endearment, not an attempt to establish a definitive collection. Discarded as they were, van Gogh's or Kafka's works could have just as easily been part of this... had they been found behind dumpsters or at flea markets in the Boston area.

[rectang]

I watched the video and I don't see how cutting commentary like otteromkram pointed out here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42168503#42173585 aligns with their intent to not say anything negative about the artist:

> MOBA curators believe this painting, as well as others in the collection, may have been affected by the artists' never having actually seen a naked woman.

Or how this, with regards to https://museumofbadart.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/photo-... doesn't say anything negative about the art:

> The model, whose red hair matches the wall color almost perfectly, leans to her right in a pose designed to help the artist avoid the difficulty of portraying her hands. In doing so, she seems to have dislocated her left hip.

This isn't some cubist work where the body distortion was deliberate, it's just a painting by an artist that hasn't mastered realistic anatomical perspective.

I admire the sentiment in the video, and I can appreciate how it's difficult to live up to it. I wish they would go through the commentary on their site and make it more uplifting — I think that would make their creative endeavor of curation more compelling.

[robocat]

> and make it more uplifting

And end up with the E954 praising of children and participation awards?

If we grow through adversity, what happens when we edit all adversity out of our realities?

[rectang]

LOL, humans are a uniquely vicious species and will never lack for either assholery or self doubt. There will always be sufficient human misery to foster growth.