I have absolutely no artistic talent. But I do love art, real art, produced by gifted and talented people. I have a very talented daughter and her work is amazing. I have it displayed everywhere.

I understand that Hunter Biden is also a great artist. I’m being facetious, I hope you caught that. It’s been very interesting to listen to the media discuss Hunter’s work and the famous and wealthy celebrities planning to attend his exhibits. I saw where one piece was priced at $500,000. If you’ve seen these art pieces, you know the buyer is not just buying that wall hanging.

When I started thinking about art, I remembered a column I wrote some time back. I just had to tell you about it again. I can’t help myself.
A museum was started by a couple of artists. It’s called Museum of Non-Visible Art (MONA). The art only exists in the artists’ mind. It’s non-visible. You just can’t make this stuff. I don’t care how creative you are.

The website says this:  

“The Museum of Non-Visible Art is an extravaganza of imagination, a museum that reminds us that we live in two worlds: the physical world of sight and the non-visible world of thought. Composed entirely of ideas, the Non-Visible Museum redefines the concept of what is real. Although the artworks themselves are not visible, the descriptions open our eyes to a parallel world built of images and words. This world is not visible, but it is real, perhaps more real than the world of matter, and it is also for sale.”

Prices range from $20 to $10,000. I haven’t been able to determine how many non-visible pieces have been sold. A Canadian media producer did purchase one piece for $10,000.

This seems to go hand in hand with some of the craziness in the art world. I have long been a critic of the National Endowment for the Arts. This organization receives approximately $150 million from taxpayers.  It’s a transfer of wealth from low-income Americans to the upper crust of society. This figure represents the entire tax burden for more than 450,000 working class families. Most of these families will never attend a symphony or visit an art museum. 

The Heritage Foundation did an in-depth study regarding the NEA and came up with ten good reasons why it should be eliminated. I could add more but will just touch on the most egregious examples of what they fund.

The Washington Times reported on a grant by the NEA which features works containing sexual torture, incest, sadomasochism, and child sex; the “excerpts depict a scene in which a brother sister team rape their younger sister, the torture of a Mexican male prostitute and oral sex between two women.” Some Law enforcement agencies focusing on Child Exploitation and obscenity said this posed a “direct threat to the prosecution of obscenity and child pornography because of it’s official stamp on such material.”

There are films being funded and promoted by NEA that feature the sexual or lesbian experiences of girls 12 and under. There’s another video in which two men are depicted having anonymous bathroom sex.

These are just a few and not nearly the worst. There are some that I’m embarrassed to write about. 

This is not new. The left has been “creating” despicable art forever. You may remember the “Piss Christ” exhibit, a crucifix submerged in urine. An “artist” covering her nude body with chocolate and “performing,” another “artist” threw elephant dung on a canvas and collected from the NEA. One more in case you haven’t heard enough, an American flag was exhibited in a toilet.

When artists are incapable of producing works that are of value to others, the government gladly funds it.  Only in recent years have we, as a society, decided that the masses are obligated to subsidize the perversion of others’ delusions referred to as art. 

The great works of art produced throughout centuries were not funded by the NEA. This agency was part of LBJ’s “Great Society” and began in 1965.  

There have been efforts to rein in this agency and require decency standards. Well, wouldn’t you know. The Court ruled, long ago, the statutory requirement that “general standards of decency and respect” be considered are unconstitutional. Without these decency standards the NEA can fund anything they want. They appear to seek out the worst examples of depravity and filth.

Since taxpayers can’t have any say in what is funded, we should at least stop funding any of it. It’s the old cliché about indecency and filth, “I know it when I see it.” 

Whew. Now I need a shower.