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They're the "disasterpieces" of modern art that are so bad, they’re good.
The Museum of Bad Art in Boston is home to hundreds of paintings and sculptures that would be snubbed by traditional art galleries.
But not only does the basement art house attract more than 8,000 visitors a year, accomplished artists send in their creations to be exhibited alongside bad artworks found at garage sales, second hand shops and in dumpsters.
"We are saying what you’re not supposed to say. There’s this whole thing that there’s no such thing as bad art. There is! If there’s no such thing as bad art, there’s no such thing as good art," Louise Sacco Reilly, MOBA’s executive director, told SBS.
"There’s a stringent selection criteria. It can’t be boring … It has to be sincere and original, and then it has to be that something went wrong. Either somebody had a bad idea or maybe their skills weren’t up to what they were trying to do and it fell on its face."
Ms Sacco Reilly said some of the art is so mind-blowingly bad, it appeared the creator didn’t even know which end of the brush to hold. Yet, she said, even the most terrible creations draw a crowd – partly because of the hilarious titles and critiques.
There’s a Hispanic-looking Elvis ("A refreshing multicultural treatment of one of the twentieth century’s most beloved icons"); an apparently transsexual Mona Lisa ("Mana Lisa’s nose strikes nimbly, offsetting the dialogue between the foreground and the profoundly vanished background"); and the "Queen of the Chocolate Chip", a watercolour painting of a monarch holding what could only be described as a biscuit.
It’s initially hard to tell, but the inspiration for the not-so-regal work was Louis de Silvestre’s 1738 elegant portrait of Queen Maria Amalia, who was actually holding a mini painting of her husband.
Another defining contribution is "Sunday on the Pot with George" – a pointillist piece found at a Pennsylvania flea market of a footless, rotund man wearing a sumo wrestler loincloth, but painted with Louvre-level skill.
The piece has been in the collection for 16 years, but only came to the attention of the painter, local artist John Gedraitis, a few years ago.
"He said, 'Oh my God, what have I done?' But he didn’t want us to take it down," Ms Sacco Reilly said, explaining that some artists are grateful their work is on display.
Mr Gedraitis did not return calls for comment.
Then there is the downright ugly painting that inspired MOBA – a grandmother resembling Mrs Doubtfire running through a field.
Antiques dealer Scott Wilson found the artwork (later discovered to be a painting of a beloved deceased granny) dumped on a Boston street in 1993.
He was going to throw it out when his friend, Jerry Reilly, saw it and demanded to hang it in his own home.
They named it "Lucy in the Field with Flowers" with the accompanying critique: "The motion, the chair, the expression on her face, the subtle hues of the sky, the sway of her breasts - every detail cries out 'masterpiece'."
The Boston local slowly added to his collection and invited people over to view the heinous range.
What began as a gathering of 50 boomed to more than 200 as guests invited their friends.
Seeing the genuine interest in the museum-quality bad art, Mr Reilly and Mr Wilson rented a space to exhibit the work and its fame grew.
The collection is now housed in the basement of the Somerville Theatre – a haunted 100-year-old vaudeville venue – showcasing about 20 works at a time. MOBA has at least 700 in its collection.
The museum is run by a group of friends, including Ms Sacco Reilly, who believe in democratising art.
"Beyond our name, we never say anything negative about these pieces. We talk about our interpretation, what we see in them," Ms Sacco Reilly said.
"We have some professional artists who regularly send us their work. When something goes wrong, they’ll send it and go, gee you might like this one."
The small museum has a cult following, drawing international visitors, accomplished artists and curious locals. More than 25,900 people follow MOBA’s movements on Facebook and the works have been displayed in Calgary, Virginia, Utah and Taiwan.
"There are things that can never be called fine art that have lots of obvious things wrong with them but that people really like to see, talk about, think about, and sometimes laugh with," Ms Sacco Reilly said.
"If we’re making fun of anyone, it’s art critics and art writers. The people in the art world who really get behind us are those who have some kind of disdain for that community."
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