Digby Warde-Aldam

Hans Haacke’s Gift Horse, Fourth Plinth, review: cringe-worthy – but at least it’s not David Shrigley

There is good art, there is mediocre art and there is bad art. In the same ratio – about 3:65:32 – there is good political art, mediocre political art and bad political art. There is also a slender sub-genre of this last category, known as so-bad-it’s-good political art. And of this, I am a connoisseur.

This week I encountered the best example of this I’d seen for quite some time. I’ll spare the numpty who painted it the blushes of a namecheck, but the picture was a faux-naïf (?) riff on the Last Supper, earnest as you like, in which  Jesus and the disciples are throwing up their arms in Nazi salutes. I didn’t think to enquire as to the price, but the grin it’s kept on my face since has been priceless.

Call me arch, but I love this stuff.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in