Kevin Abosch, “Potato #345 (2010)” (Screen shot by the author via Kevin Abosch/Twitter)
You may have heard the news that a German businessman has reportedly purchased a photograph of a dirty potato for $1.8 million. If verified, the sale would make the photograph the 15th most expensive one ever sold, right up there with works by Cindy Sherman and Edward Steichen.
American Gothic with Potato (via @NycAnarchy)
The photographer, Kevin Abosch, is beloved by high-profile Silicon Valley executives and celebrities — he’s made portraits of the likes of Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, actor Johnny Depp, and artist Yoko Ono.
The alleged sale of “Potato #345 (2010)” has, of course, sparked outrage across the internet. But before you, too, despair for humanity, remember that the businessman who allegedly bought this potato photo for $1.8 million over dinner and “two glasses of wine” in 2015 is as yet unnamed, and the sale has not yet been verified. We can hope that we’re all being trolled and the supposed sale is a performance art stunt, maybe some comment on Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome, or that there’s been a failure of fact checking on par with that hoax story about a high schooler who claimed to make $72 million on stock trades.
Or maybe it’s all true, and as people all over social media seem to think, this super expensive potato photo is a sign that end times are nigh. Herewith, a potato-rage sampling.
“A $1,000,000 old turd.”
“All because of the stupid fad of potatoes of this generation.” (Is anyone else aware of this fad?)
“Human beings are really dumb.”
“#dumbart”
“You’re clearly not being pretentious enough.”
A lesson in how to be “pretentious enough:” Talking to CBS News, Abosch explained the deep deep artistic depth of his potato portrait for those who fail to immediately see it. “I see commonalities between humans and potatoes that speak to our relationship as individuals within a collective species,” he said. “Generally, the life of a harvested potato is violent and taken for granted. I use the potato as a proxy for the ontological study of the human experience.”
All images via Facebook or Twitter.
Original source of the claim?
I also don’t buy it…
LMAO. I must say, there have been worse pieces created and sold for staggering amounts. Why be outraged, people??? You demanded ridiculousness and absurdity instead of the constraints of logical beauty, and now that you have it, you’re outraged??. Pfthhhhh……
Obviously real meaning in art is dead. It’s now been relegated to some sort of game.
The “shock of the new/outrageous”, “The highest price payed”, more Facebook likes,”pop star” artist with a gimmick, most egotistically masturbatory, or what have you. A larger sense of advancing the perceptual paradigm seems lost. Everyone should go out and take more pictures of yourself and your food smug in knowing that you too are an artist. Let’s get dumber!!!!
I like the photograph. I find it rather beautiful. This is what asteroids look like.
Someone is a real dumbass! Not only is this not even art but apparently somebody think Yoko Ono is an artist!