The Museum of Bad Art in Boston now shows about 100 of its odd paintings inside the Dorchester Brewing Company, IOL reported.
The museum was founded in 1993. It has collected about 900 paintings from thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets, online auctions, donors and even rubbish left on the street. The works come from 31 US states and 15 countries.
“In many ways, our basic criteria is the same as any museum. The art has to be sincere, original and interesting,” said Louise Reilly Sacco, the museum’s permanent interim acting executive director.
“At traditional museums, the art is interesting because of the excellence in technique or concept. For us, it is interesting because something went wrong and makes it worth talking about,” she said.
Roughly another 100 pieces hang in the Salon du Bad Art at EXMURO, a gallery in Quebec City, Canada.
The museum does have rules. It does not accept doodles on napkins, paintings of dogs playing poker or copies of Bob Ross. Velvet paintings are also not welcome, with one exception called “Elvis Descending a Staircase”.
Many of the works copy famous paintings or follow styles such as cubism and surrealism. One piece, “Owen Wilson and the Three Graces”, was donated in 2024. Its artist, Tovah Stevenson, told curator Michael Frank it was a protest against the flood of abstract art made by art students.
The museum started with a painting found in the trash. In 1993, Boston antiques dealer Scott Wilson found a picture of an old woman dancing in a field of flowers on garbage night.
Wilson planned to keep only the gold frame. His friend Jerry Reilly, who is Sacco’s brother, called the painting “so bad, it’s good”. The founders held their first show the next year in Reilly’s basement in West Roxbury.
In 1996, a portrait called “Eileen” was stolen from outside the house. Boston police sent an arts crime team to look into the case. The museum offered a reward of $6.50, and the thieves asked for $5,000. The staff refused to pay.
About ten years later, the painting turned up on Sacco’s driveway, wrapped in brown paper.
As crowds grew, the collection moved to the basements of the Dedham Community Theatre and later the Somerville Theatre. Three years ago, it moved into the brewery south of downtown Boston.
“I’ll see people standing in front of the brewery, looking at it, and I’ll walk out and tell them, ‘Yep, it’s the museum, as well,'” said Matt Malloy, the brewery’s owner.
Every painting has a label with the artist’s name, if it is known, and where the piece came from. Frank writes the labels and said one goal is to help people understand the art or what the artist meant.
Paintings now cover nearly every wall on the ground floor and stairwell. Frank is looking at a large empty wall upstairs in the brewery for more works.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL Entertainment. Image: IOL Entertainment. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Entertainment desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Rirhandzu Baloyi writes about entertainment for Tzaneen Voice. Rirhandzu covers South African music, film, TV, streaming, awards and celebrity news, from amapiano and local soapies to Showmax and Netflix releases. Stories stick to what happened, who was involved and when fans can watch or listen.