New York Magazine’s Senior Art Critic Jerry Saltz said Friday to “imagine” if Donald Trump Jr. “made little watercolors” like Hunter Biden’s “art” and “sold them at an iffy commercial gallery for upwards of $150,000.”
“To those saying it’s fine that Hunter Biden shows his generic decorative zombie-abstraction art at a commercial gallery & sells it: Imagine if Donald Trump Jr (coke addict) made little watercolors like these & sold them at an iffy commercial gallery for upwards of $150,000,” he tweeted.
“Now imagine all the foreign agents, fishy businessmen, lobbyists, politicos buying the work & back room deals. The potential for conflict of interest is enormous & dangerous. Do what Republican war-monger George W. Bush did. Make your work; show it at a non-profit; no sales,” Saltz continued to state.
2/2. Now imagine all the foreign agents, fishy businessmen, lobbyists, politicos buying the work & back room deals. The potential for conflict of interest is enormous & dangerous.
Do what Republican war-monger George W. Bush did. Make your work; show it at a non-profit; no sales— Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) July 23, 2021
Ben Davis, a Artnet News’s National Art Critic, also gave his negative thoughts on Hunter’s new venture of selling art to “anonymous” investors.
“The whole thing is very, very weird. Prior to signing Hunter Biden, Bergès’s top media results “were nothing to quite speak about,” he began about Hunter’s art dealer, George Bergès.
“Now he is pitching himself as a kind of guru whose personal coaching shaped Hunter Biden from a hobbyist into a serious full-time artist,” Davis said of Bergès. “Back in 2019, Hunter sought and failed to find gallery representation with the help of Lanette Phillips, a Hollywood producer and supporter of the elder Biden.”
“Media interest in Hunter Biden’s art has now gone supernova because the White House was compelled to issue official ethics guidelines on his new career,” David continued. “Here’s a better idea: Don’t sell the artwork.”
The White House is singing a different tune.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated Thursday, “We believe that Hunter Biden, just like any child of a president, should be able to pursue their professions and their passions,” and said Hunter’s meeting with potential “anonymous” art buyers was “reasonable”:
“We won’t know who the buyers are. Hunter Biden won’t know who the buyers are,” Psaki stated, adding that as long as the donors were anonymous, “there’s no scenario where they could provide influence.”
But Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), said, “Their solution of transparency is to actually hide who is engaged in the transaction. It’s ludicrous.”
The Washington Post claims Bergès “agreed to reject any offer” for Hunter’s “artwork” from anonymous buyers “that he deems suspicious or that comes in over the asking price, according to people familiar with the agreement.”
Bergès will set the prices for the artwork and withhold “all records, including potential bidders and final buyers,” the Post reported.
“Everyone will be vetted…so, whomever is appropriate will be attending,” Georges Bergès Gallery spokeswoman Robin Davis explained about the concern of who might buy the novice’s “artwork” during events in which “Biden will not discuss potential purchases, prices, or anything related to the selling of artwork.
Bergès’s guarantee is a linchpin of concern. Money laundering was identified as an issue in the art world, according to the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations just last year.
Bergès maintains “strong ties to China,” which coincides with Hunter Biden’s “business interests in a billion-dollar Chinese investment firm,” as his father served as vice president.
President Joe Biden has publicly remained distant from his son’s scandalous venture, which could earn Hunter up to $500,000 per panting.
Hunter Biden told Artnet, “My dad loves everything that I do, and so I’ll leave it at that.”
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