Hitler’s Art
From the Art News Blog:
This article was interesting to me because of its controversial subject matter. The Chapman brothers have done this before, essentially what others would call defacement, by adding smiley faces to Goya etchings. I guess I’m ok with them doing this to Hitler’s paintings; I can see the point they are making. However, its not cool with me that they messed with the Goya etchings - what’s next? Putting a unicorn into Van Gogh’s Starry Night? Let me know what you think.
Brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman have added some psychodelic rainbows and and hearts to their Adolf Hitler paintings that they bought at auction for £115,000 and are now selling them for £685,000. The paintings which will be sold as one work is called “If Hitler had been a Hippy How Happy Would We Be”
He hoped the defacement of Hitler’s work, which includes landscapes, vistas of Roman ruins and still life, which the dictator painted when he was young, would have him “spinning”. The changes they had added meant it was no longer Hitler’s work, he added.
“If hell exists and Hitler exists in it, he would be spinning if he saw these. It’s not his work any more. It’s our work,” he said. Independent
The Chapman brothers’ exhibition can be seen at the White Cube Gallery in London.
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Comments
I agree-I also am not sure how I feel about it. At first I guess I kinda thought it was funny, but then when I realized that these pieces WERE a part of history that we’ve now lost a little bit, even if it IS Hitler’s, then that’s not ok. Even if you own the paintings, paid for them, isn’t there something to a public responsibility to preserve these for future generations?
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I have mixed feelings about this. Art is art. I feel that you should not compromise an artist’s work even if it the artist was Hitler. As much as I hate to admit, Hitler is a part of history (evil, evil man), but nonetheless, history.
I am assuming these are the original pieces that they painted over? Maybe they should have used a copy