Greg's List: The Museum of Bad Art

(NECN: Greg Wayland, Somerville, Mass.) -- Back in 1994 a Boston antique dealer rescued a painting from a curbside trash pile. He just wanted the frame, but his friends convinced him the painting was also kind of unique.

Uniquely bad. Thus was born the Museum of Bad Art.

"Art too bad to be ignored is one of our slogans. "

Because it's all so painfully eye-grabbing.

Colors straight from the tube, figures curiously off-kilter, all hung with pride at  MOBA, or the Museum of Bad Art -  a windowless cavern down -- way down --underneath the old Somerville Theatre in Somerville, Mass.

Executive Director Louise Reilly Sacco was our guide.

We saw twisted treasures like ..."the weight lifter", A sculpture resembling a burnt out match stick.

Mostly -- we saw bad paintings by good artists.

In fact, a certain bold sincerity is a standard for acceptance at MOBA -- which is why Chiquita probably wouldn't match your sofa.

"But there are other people who barely knew which end of the paint brush to pick up," said Louise.

In every case something went awry.

"They either had a bad day or maybe they had a bad idea "

Take Chiquita -- one of those classic images of a Latin American woman balancing fruit on her head. She's also nude.

"The concave cheekbone and the fruit. There's no way it could stay up there"

"We have some nudes that seem to have been painted by someone who's never seen a naked body," said Louise.

But good artists often donate their bad stuff to MOBA. Still, many of these bad boys are anonymous. Like a grim, symbol-crammed family portrait rescued from someone's rubbish.

"We've got ghosts, we've got some kind of a small city here"

A smiling air-brushed monstrosity was also rescued from the trash.It's a smiling portrait of -- some guy. But a mother-daughter portrait.was donated by professional artist Sarah Rainey, who was experimenting with color.

In fact, a certain bold sincerity is a standard for acceptance at MOBA -- which is why Chiquita probably wouldn't match your sofa.

"If you buy it to match your sofa, it's not art. it's interior decoration," said Louise.

And Louise says "good" bad art is not kitchy.

Like a factory-produced kitchy velvet Elvis, hung at MOBA as a classic example of kitch.

"In contrast, we've got an Elvis that's called Pablo Presley," said Louise.

Elvis in the style of Pablo Picasso!

Bad, but sincerely bad. ( though Elvis might have hated it). However, works done badly deliberately are rejected by MOBA..

For more information, go to their website at MuseumofBadArt.org

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