Artist Ordered to Repay Commission for Submitting Blank Canvas as Art

[public hermit]

Haaning, who is known for his artwork that takes aim at income inequality, migration and working conditions, was hired by the Kunsten Museum to recreate one of his most famous pieces from 2007. The artwork that the museum was expecting was supposed to be a canvas lined with krone banknotes to represent different household incomes in Denmark.

When the museum received the artwork in 2021, they were surprised to find two large blank canvases, titled “Take the Money and Run.”

That is so wrong.

The Kunsten Museum later displayed the blank canvasses but asked Haaning to return the money as he had broken their contract.

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Danish artist ordered to repay €67,000 for empty frame artworks

58-year-old Danish artist Jens Haaning has been ordered by a Danish court to repay the Kunsten Museum after he delivered blank canvasses to them in 2021.

www.euronews.com

 

[sfs]

They should have paid him with blank banknotes.

 

[public hermit]

It seems odd to me they would display it and also ask for the money back.

 

[d taylor]

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Well that is what you get when you deal with these conceptual artist.

 

[FireDragon76]

I thought it was very clever, ridiculing the decadence of modern art fads.

 

[durangodawood]

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Well that is what you get when you deal with these conceptual artist.

Is it?

 

[durangodawood]

The promised artwork doesn't sound that much better than what he delivered.

 

[d taylor]

Is it?

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What do you prefer a blank canvas or a pile of bricks.or a toilet, etc....

 

[Bradskii]

I read that they hung it upside down by mistake.

 

[Pommer]

I read that they hung it upside down by mistake.

Sideways?

 

[Bradskii]

Sideways?

Maybe even back to front!

 

[durangodawood]

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What do you prefer a blank canvas or a pile of bricks.or a toilet, etc....

View attachment 336462​

Why are those my only choices?

 

[Bradskii]

Why are those my only choices?

I went to the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art a few years ago. A German exhibition. A lot of it rather obscure. There was one exhibit that was a trope l'oeil in that it looked like a painting of a hole which had been cut in the wall and you could see the services behind it. OK, I thought. That's kinda clever. So I walked over to check it out. And it turned out to actually be a hole in the wall. Gee, how dumb was I for confusing some repair work to be an art exhibit.

So I peered into the hole, as you would. And then noticed a small card alongside it giving the artists name and title of the work. And it turned out that cutting the hole was the work of art.

I couldn't trust anything after that. Was that a toilet door or another exhibit? A staff member or an active part of the exhibition? A confusing couple of hours.

 

[durangodawood]

I went to the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art a few years ago. A German exhibition. A lot of it rather obscure. There was one exhibit that was a trope l'oeil in that it looked like a painting of a hole which had been cut in the wall and you could see the services behind it. OK, I thought. That's kinda clever. So I walked over to check it out. And it turned out to actually be a hole in the wall. Gee, how dumb was I for confusing some repair work to be an art exhibit.

So I peered into the hole, as you would. And then noticed a small card alongside it giving the artists name and title of the work. And it turned out that cutting the hole was the work of art.

I couldn't trust anything after that. Was that a toilet door or another exhibit? A staff member or an active part of the exhibition? A confusing couple of hours.

Im pretty interested in contemporary art. But honestly that kind of stuff is just boring and was worn out shortly after people started doing it like 50 years ago.

I'm sorry you had to endure that.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Haaning, who is known for his artwork that takes aim at income inequality, migration and working conditions, was hired by the Kunsten Museum to recreate one of his most famous pieces from 2007. The artwork that the museum was expecting was supposed to be a canvas lined with krone banknotes to represent different household incomes in Denmark.

When the museum received the artwork in 2021, they were surprised to find two large blank canvases, titled “Take the Money and Run.”

That is so wrong.

The Kunsten Museum later displayed the blank canvasses but asked Haaning to return the money as he had broken their contract.

---

---

Danish artist ordered to repay €67,000 for empty frame artworks

58-year-old Danish artist Jens Haaning has been ordered by a Danish court to repay the Kunsten Museum after he delivered blank canvasses to them in 2021.

www.euronews.com

meh...it's still better than most of the modern "art" that exists today. At least he got creative with the theme lol.


But to the "meat" of what the artwork was supposed to represent (Income inequality in Denmark), did I miss a meeting in which it was decided that Denmark has an income inequality problem? And if so, what is the acceptable level of income disparity people are hoping for here as their end goal?

Based on OECD data, Denmark is one of the better countries in that regard, and have some of the highest taxes in order to facilitate their 4th place ranking in terms of "keeping the playing field more even"

What are the "acceptable" the boundaries here? Do people have visions of a magical society where a successful neurosurgeon only makes $82k/year and a janitor makes $75k in order to be "satisfied with the inequality level"?

 

[durangodawood]

meh...it's still better than most of the modern "art" that exists today....

I have to wonder either about your taste in art, or your experience with it.

 

[d taylor]

Why are those my only choices?

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It does not matter if i give you fifty choices, a person would still have a good chance of having happen with the blank canvas, when dealing with conceptual art

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I have to wonder either about your taste in art, or your experience with it.

I love going to art museums and can appreciate the work of people who are truly talented.

A lot of the modern art looks like it lacks the talent aspect...and is more or less snooty people pretending they're deriving some sort of deep meaning out of it when it clearly just looks like splattered paint on a canvas, or sculpting involving odd random shapes that looks like a kindergartener could've made it.


For instance, the guy being reviewed in this video has a special talent

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=748194846989438

(the artist he's reviewing is a guy named Paul Kenton)


This stuff on the other hand:

Yeah...I don't get the appeal (I have a yearly membership to both the Cleveland and Columbus museums of art...and hit the the ones in Pittsburg and Philly once or twice a year)...the only time I go to events for that kind of stuff is if they happen to be serving a wine selection I find to be interesting and use it as an opportunity to network.


While there are some exceptions...most modern art is the Nickelback to Classical Art's Jimi Hendrix (or the Ying Yang Twins to classical art's Nas if you prefer a hip hop analogy instead of rock)

 

[durangodawood]

I love going to art museums and can appreciate the work of people who are truly talented.

A lot of the modern art looks like it lacks the talent aspect...and is more or less snooty people pretending they're deriving some sort of deep meaning out of it when it clearly just looks like splattered paint on a canvas, or sculpting involving odd random shapes that looks like a kindergartener could've made it.


For instance, the guy being reviewed in this video has a special talent

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=748194846989438

(the artist he's reviewing is a guy named Paul Kenton)


This stuff on the other hand:
View attachment 336499
View attachment 336500
View attachment 336501

Yeah...I don't get the appeal (I have a yearly membership to both the Cleveland and Columbus museums of art...and hit the the ones in Pittsburg and Philly once or twice a year)...the only time I go to events for that kind of stuff is if they happen to be serving a wine selection I find to be interesting and use it as an opportunity to network.


While there are some exceptions...most modern art is the Nickelback to Classical Art's Jimi Hendrix (or the Ying Yang Twins to classical art's Nas if you prefer a hip hop analogy instead of rock)

I guess I end up seeing a lot of different things than you do. But I am a looong way from galleries/museums. The closest is Santa Fe, which is an amazing art scene. (I have a good friend whos an artist and prominent educator there). Just get past the tourist interior designy stuff and there's a lot going on. Great stuff. Way better than a blank canvas (yes I know, faint praise)... Some lame work too. But you cant please everybody.

Whats wrong with Cleveland and Columbus that theyre letting you down so badly - if your examples represent the norm?

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I guess I end up seeing a lot of different things than you do. But I am a looong way from galleries/museums. The closest is Santa Fe, which is an amazing art scene. (I have a good friend whos an artist and prominent educator there). Just get past the tourist interior designy stuff and there's a lot going on. Great stuff. Way better than a blank canvas (yes I know, faint praise)... Some lame work too. But you cant please everybody.

Whats wrong with Cleveland and Columbus that theyre letting you down so badly - if your examples represent the norm?

That doesn't represent the norm...they have galleries with amazing stuff from various time periods and various styles. It's when they host their modern art special events that you get to see the mediocrity on display.
(the stereotypical scene... the artists who made it pretending they don't care about what they're wearing...even though it's clear they spent a lot of time on their "look"...y'know the types I'm talking about, you can tell they spent 45 mins in front of a mirror making sure their hair looks "the right kind of messy"...a lot of time invested in cultivating just the right "I don't care" look, attendees reeking of desperation trying to talk to the artists about it so they can be in the "cool club" and have something to talk about...etc...)

I have more infinitely more appreciation for Randyland in Pittsburgh (in terms of modern and alternative art) than I do for the modern art scene in Cleveland. Although, if you're looking to check out Randyland, I'd recommend doing it sooner than later. Randy (I got to talk with him for about an hour on my last trip out to the Burgh) seems to not be coping well with some of the life changes that have taken place for him over the past 4 years, and Randyland is slowly transitioning into something that looks like it's out of an episode of Hoarders.

Randy Gilson, Genius of the Human Spirit - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Life began for me on January 27, 1957, in Titusville, Pennsylvania. My dad was from there and my mom came from a dairy farm in Mercer. She was a little country girl who loved to play the accordion, and she’d always go down to the tent revival meetings because she also loved Jesus. That’s where …...

pittsburghquarterly.com

This piece was written about him back pre-pandemic. He's a guy with ADHD, OCD, Autism...and the combination of his partner dying, combined with the effects pandemic has sent him "off the rails" just a bit and he didn't seem like the same guy in 2021 I talked to back in 2018.