Museum of Bad Art
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The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA), in Dedham, Massachusetts, USA, is a private museum dedicated to the tongue-in-cheek display of poorly conceived or executed examples of naïve art in the form of paintings or sculpture. It was founded in 1993, and in 1995 the display space moved from a private home to the basement of the Dedham Community Theatre [1]. The museum's permanent collection includes 250 pieces, twenty-five of which are on public display at any one time.
The museum's motto is "art too bad to be ignored." According to former director, Jerry Reilly, "the paintings and sculptures that we collect are works of exuberant art by people who sometimes don't have a clue what they're doing." [2]
The humorous presentation extends to the descriptions attached to various pieces throughout the gallery, which are often parodies of more sober art reviews. The painting Peter the Kitty, for example, is accompanied by the description "stirring in its portrayal of feline angst. Is Peter hungry or contemplating his place in a hungry world? The artist has evoked both hopelessness and glee with his irrational use of negative space." [3]
Perhaps the most famous of MOBA's collection is Lucy in the Field with Flowers. It was fished out of the trash in Boston by Scott Wilson, who later founded the museum, and is referred to as "MOBA's Mona Lisa" [4]. MOBA has been the victim of an art theft, which drew the attention not only of the Boston police, but also the Boston Globe [5].
Humorous appreciation of the kind of work showcased by MOBA has had a long tradition; the MOBA gallery itself inspired a number of related projects, including the Ohio Bad Art Guild, an online-only gallery that has since ceased operating.
