Photo: Lane Turner via Boston Globe
A group of haters of Pierre-Auguste Renoir gathered yesterday outside the gates of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts to declare publicly their utter contempt for the work of the renowned Impressionist master.
According to the Boston Globe, the group of protesters, which included a Harvard academic, sported signs that read “God Hates Renoir” and “Re-NO-ir,” and chanted derisive slogans, such as “Put some fingers on those hands!,” “Give us work by Paul Gauguin!,” and “Other art is worth your while! Renoir paints a steaming pile!”
The protest has been organized by Max Geller, the brain behind the Instagram account Renoir Sucks at Painting, with the solid goal of making the museum de-install the works by Renoir they have on view and replace them with what he and his fellow haters deem as better, more suitable art.
“I don’t have any relationship with these people aside from wanting artistic justice,” Craig Ronan, an artist from Somerville, told the Boston Globe of joining the protest after having been enticed by the Renoir Sucks at Painting Instagram account.
The museum hasn’t made any public statements for the moment, but museum goers and passers-by seemed amused by the protest, to say the least.
“I love their sense of irony,” Liz Byrd, a museum visitor, told the Boston Globe. “I love Renoir, but I think this is great.”
Who would have thought that the oeuvre of a French Impressionist painter could inspire such passionately negative emotions?
UPDATE: A woman claiming to be the artist’s great-great-granddaughter has struck back, taking to Instagram to defend her famous ancestor. Read more here.