Um... WHAT?!?
7I really hope there's more to the story than Cards Against Humanity is letting on (re: Tête de Faune)
For those wondering what I am talking about, apparently CAH bought an original Picasso, and now they are giving the 150,000 people who bought Eight Sensible Gifts this year a simple choice:
A) Donate this work to the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, or
B) They would laser-cut it into 150,000 tiny squares and send everyone their own scrap of a real Picasso
https://picasso.eightsensiblegifts.com/
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/cards-against-humanity-buys-picasso-061655811.html
For those who bought Eight Sensible Gifts, what are your thoughts?
To those who DIDN'T buy it: what are your thoughts?
- 31 comments, 41 replies
- Comment
I am breaking your rule, as I did buy it.
I am voting to cut it the hell up just to annoy you :)
@thismyusername Which rule?
And to be honest, I'm actually interested in seeing it getting cut up and mailed out for various reasons which I can't get into for other reasons I can't say.
@FroodyFrog oh sorry missed the for those who bought it part :)
(I'm not really voting to destroy it, most I've talked to are voting to donate it as well hehe)
For reasons you can't say?
YOU HAVE THE REAL ONE AND THIS ONE IS A FAKE ADMIT IT!!!!
@thismyusername I'm very interested to see what the backlash would be if they did end up cutting it up.
I can neither confirm nor deny those allegations.
I really do not know how I am going to vote. The little card that explains everything is up on my fridge, to remind me to vote next week. A big part of of me would like it donated, but the conversation starter part of me wants a piece of it.
I bought ESG for my girlfriend. She wants a piece of a Picasso that she can frame, so she's in the cut it up camp. At first I was firmly in the donate it category. But when she talked to me about it, it can be viewed like a performance art piece. Taking something one of a kind and creating a new act out of it, one that many people would find unthinkable, is in some ways a work of art in itself. So if she wants to vote to cut it up I'm not going to argue with it.
I kind of figured with the CAH crowd the vote would skew heavily toward cutting it up anyway.
@djslack
Re: Your last point - When you take into account the CAH crowd, and the fact of the internet: yeah, I could kinda see the voting swinging to the painting being cut up.
As to it being considering a work of art in a sense, while I am not necessarily advocating this, this kind of act is how any new form of art came into being throughout history. Something unthinkable was done, and people marveled over it.
But then again, to take a Picasso (@thismyusername - notice, I didn't specify it as original or not ;) ) to do something like this, may cause a huge backlash, as opposed to how other forms of art throughout history came into being through less drastic ways...
i want my fucking 1/150000th of the Picasso dammit. screw the art institute. what has it ever done for me except let me marvel at some very cool paintings? oh wait...
@carl669 I never was at a museum in my life. The closest I got to it was from several movies, and Dr Who (with Smith and Capaldi), so I can relate to the first two sentences.
@communist Ai Weiwei rules.
@communist
Background knowledge for those who don't know what this is from: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/feb/18/ai-weiwei-han-urn-smash-miami-art
and a nice long article about Ai http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-ai-weiwei-chinas-most-dangerous-man-17989316/?no-ist
What isn't made clear is whether it's a print or a painting. If it's a print, then there are others like it. (I'm voting to donate it in any case.) (Yeah. It's a signed print.)
@madamehardy theres 49 others.
@madamehardy Yep, it appears to be one of the 50 numbered linocuts. Sold as part of what seems to be a lot of several items for about $14,164. Oddly enough, when I googled for the conversion rate from 14,000 Swiss francs to USD, there were 10 other conversion requests for the same amount.
@magic_cave I'd vote to donate it, but if it were cut up it wouldn't be a tragic loss to international culture.
@magic_cave
So you're saying that it's only worth saving art if it has a huge impact culturally internationally?
@FroodyFrog To some extent, yes. The intrinsic and extrinsic values of works of art are dependent in some part on the work's uniqueness or rarity. For a contemporary lesson on those values, review the history of "art" by Thomas Kinkade.
I have a signed copy (25/100) of a litho by feminist artist/writer Kate Millett. It's very similar, although more explicit, to the piece she chose for the cover of her book Sita. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00785VIO2?keywords=sita&qid=1450886719&ref_=sr_1_8&sr=8-8#reader_B00785VIO2
I would be very sad if something happened to my litho. I love both its simplicity and its strength; Millett used only seven or eight brush strokes to convey the image of an unmistakably nude woman. It was my first piece of "real" art, serendipitously found when I saw a wall banner for a gallery exhibit of Millett's work in NYC, and it was a serious stretch for my relatively meager 1976 budget.
Despite my love for this piece, its destruction would likely not be a loss to the world. It is, after all, only one of a print run of 100. Millett probably has the original work as well as the plates from which the copies were made. Her work would continue to exist even if my copy of it did not.
Those are my views, anyway. YMMV.
@magic_cave That sounds awesome.
If they're giving people a chance to cut it up and keep a piece, you can bet it'll be 2:1 for cutting it up.
@PocketBrain according to the subreddit it may be a close race. i know i want to cut it up.
It's a print, not the original - cut it up.
@Thumperchick The print is the original. It is a linocut. It's part of an edition of 50.
@madamehardy The plate is the original, imo.
@Thumperchick There is no plate. See here.
@madamehardy that's interesting. However, that means Picasso destroyed the original himself, to complete his project - which I find fascinating.
With this being a 50 run print and not a well known work, I'm still comfortable with cutting it up - giving it new life as a conversation piece.
Think about it! This one choice, given to 150,000 people, has everyone considering what qualifies as "art" to them - what they value, what they don't! Whether the existence of a work by a master is sacrosanct and should be treasured forever - or if it's acceptable or even admirable to alter that piece forever! Does this option of cutting it up mean it's "destroyed"? Or is it being given new life through this possibility?
i bought in, hell yes i would love a picasso piece in my home. theres 49 others out there, and this is relative junk as far as picasos are concerned, the value of this is almost entirely in the name. (its like saying we must protect coach bags because they are coach!)
So 1/150,000 of that print, if cut into squares, would be a square 17mm on a side, if my math is right. That's actually bigger than I thought it would be.
@djslack It's 1.5mm
@DaveInSoCal
You yourself said 17 sq mm.
So which is it?
@FroodyFrog I based my post on dj's. Did more research and it's 1.5.
@DaveInSoCal see I knew my math looked suspect, but I didn't want to redo it. It's actually a little smaller than that, using just the image size (which is good because no one gets screwed with plain white border pieces).
That's basically such a tiny piece of confetti.
I get that it's a print and not the original, but I'm sure some people would still criticize this whole thing if it gets cut.
As a side note, anyone know what eBay's policy on a thing like this would be???
My wife got the CAH gifts this year so I'm letting her decide, but I was leaning toward cutting it up from the beginning. There are a lot of Picasso pieces out there and this doesn't seem to be a particularly good one. I'd rather have a piece of it than have it on some museum wall with 100 other pieces that will overshadow it.
Thinking on it further, I think it would be super cool to frame & put on the wall, perhaps with the CAH card and/or note that came in the mail. On a cultural level, it would be awesome for 150,000 families to have a piece of art history like that in their home, and arguably that will have a greater cultural impact than this painting sitting in a museum.
Now I'm hearing its 1 of 50 copies? Cut it up!
I'm torn on this. My initial reaction to the thought of willfully destroying a Picasso was disgust. However, if the plates are still in good condition they could print an infinite amount of them. It'd be nice to have a piece of one to enjoy (17 sq mm's of it, anyway). The signature is neat, but is unimportant (culturally) when compared to the art itself.
Still deciding...
@DaveInSoCal Actually, no. The way Picasso did linocuts, he cut the largest image in a linoleum block, printed 50 (ish) copies in that color, then cut down the same linoleum block to reveal the smaller image, then overprinted the previous prints with the pared-down linoleum block in the new color. Pretty cool, and there's no way to make more because you've cut the linoleum away.
hmm. here's a better explanation, maybe? "In later years he become more economical and ingenious, inventing the technique of printing multiple colors from a single linoleum block by printing the linocut, cutting out more of the block, inking it again and printing it a second time in a second color on the earlier printed single-color example, successively adding colors while continuing the process."
@madamehardy interesting! Thank you.
Has it been offered to the museum? I'm not even sure they would take this.
I have no vote, but I would vote to cut it up. Let each of the 150k have their own tiny $0.15 Picasso piece.
You mean $0.1466666666666666666666~ per piece.
@MrMark Offered to a museum, it would most likely sit in the 'archives' and never see the light of day.
@MrMark I expect CAH were smart enough to ask the museum ahead of time. But without mentioning the "otherwise we'll cut it to bits" part.
Cut that fucker up.
150,000 people can then legitimately say they've got a Picasso at home.
I am in the ESG...my first thought was to save it but then I looked at the painting and promptly changed my mind to cut it up. Maybe I just don't appreciate nice things but the painting is rather....meh
Go team nun!
I don't care its a signed print, not a single work of art. This is much ado about very little. Picasso turned into an art machine when he was older this is some of that work. The ignorant will kneejerk and make much noise. Its not like art is not to a degree ephemeral.
@cranky1950 So if I don't want a painting by someone I consider one of the masters cut up, I'm ignorant? If you want to create a new art form by cutting up a painting, why can't you buy some cheap painting and cut that up? Regardless it's been said its a print, cut away you much more intelligent art experts! Have fun!
@mehbee Irony! cool.
this print probably has more value as a victim of conceptual art than it does as a Picasso
What if one of the pieces gets lost in the mail? How do you replace it?
I think the vote would be swayed if they donated it in the name of all 150,000 (since then you could still say you owned a picasso)
But strong possibility it would be displayed for a month then go into a drawer..
I guess I havent made up my mind yet..
@joedel263
You'd still have better enjoyment of it if you got a piece of it.
And considering that the odds would still be in your favor of getting it in the mail (eventually) than it being lost...
Brought this up tonight with a friend who works in art. Before I even got a whole sentence out, she said "Oh, not the Picasso!" until I mentioned that it was a 1 in 50 linocut print. Then her stance softened a bit.
Point being, word of this happening is getting out, but the details aren't. I'm more convinced that there will be outrage if it does get cut up, but like with much outrage, many of the maddest people may be the least informed.
@djslack oh my all the free advertising :)
@djslack Discussed with my brother and father in law. They both went through the same set of emotions: disgust and angry followed by contemplation after hearing the details.
I'm now leaning towards chop chop.
Voted to donate. Although a strong argument could be made for cutting it up and distributing pieces, the thought of it made me feel bad. RIP Picasso, may your stupid looking faun live forever.
@DaveInSoCal I voted to donate as well. In small part because the thing is ugly and I don't want a 1.5mm piece of it. In greater part because, per the letter, it is seen by hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
One more day...
@FroodyFrog Thanks for bumping this, I had forgotten to vote and just went over to the site to cast mine.
I voted.... you should all be proud of my decision.
--King @thismyusername the mediocre of the August house of meh.
@thismyusername
I hope you kept in line with your original decision.
Last day of voting :/
Philistines. I'm voting for donation.
Well, 1 less vote for cutting it up. I bought the CAH deal this year, but for my other half - so he gets the vote and he prefers preservation/donation.
Well... Apparently the fate of the print was announced.
I won't say it here, but you could see for yourself on
@FroodyFrog I'm not seeing it.
@Thumperchick That's because your glow is obscuring your vision.
@cranky1950 That's not glow, it's sweat and gas.
@Thumperchick
You know, gas goes in fuel tanks, you don't roll around in it (or do other things with it)
youtube.com/watch?v=IXoS7FKo4xE
(I purposely didn't insert the viewable link here and chose to keep it a URL.
To those disgusted by Family Guy, DON'T watch the video)
@Thumperchick Bah, someone can't see the forest for the trees. You glow girl hahahaha
Bummer
Even though it had said on the Reddit page that the print was being donated, it wasn't until earlier this week that they updated the official site with the results and various stats.
If you haven't checked the site/ stat, do so now:
https://picasso.eightsensiblegifts.com
Some of what they said was surprising to me, the rest wasn't.
If you go on the Reddit page, someone posted a pic of it hanging in the museum.