The people who run the Museum of Bad Art have always believed that mishaps of the creative process have some value.
Now they hope to fetch literal dollar value from a drawing that is, shall we say, not entirely good, in an eBay auction to benefit the troubled Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Waltham.
Brandeis trustees plan to sell the Rose collection as the university grapples with budget woes, a decision that has drawn fire from some students and art lovers.
"I just thought the whole thing was a very odd decision," said Michael Frank, curator-in-chief at the Museum of Bad Art, which was founded in the basement of the Dedham Community Theatre.
Today, it has a second gallery in the basement of the Somerville Theatre.
Maybe the university already rejected renaming itself "Brandeis Bank" to qualify for a federal bailout, Frank cracked in an announcement of the auction.
Or, perhaps, Brandeis decided against sending undergraduates to the Mass. Pike's Weston toll plaza to troll for donations, he suggested.
In any case, to benefit the Rose, Frank said his museum will auction a picture from its "Rejection Collection," or artworks that for one reason or another did not make the grade for its permanent collection.
The colored pencil drawing is titled "Studies in Digestion," by Deborah Grumet, a professional artist.
The framed 18-by-24-inch artwork portrays the human digestive system in the styles of U.S. pop artist Keith Haring, French painter Georges Seurat, Belgian surrealist Rene Margritte and last but not least, Pablo Picasso.
Unsurprisingly, the auction is the only result that appears when visitors type "Studies in Digestion" into the search bar at www.ebay.com.
The auction is open until Feb. 8. As of 6 p.m. yesterday, two potential buyers had placed bids on the painting, topping at $25.49.
Frank said the artwork was donated by the artist herself, as are many pieces in the Museum of Bad Art's more than 400-piece collection.
"It's not meant to be a value judgment," Frank said of the "bad" designation. "We do have a number of people offer their own work. Sometimes they'll do it with a sense of humor. We're happy to celebrate the fact that people are trying, whether they're professional or not."
The museum does not accept just any old bad art. The intestinally-focused drawing landed in the Rejection Collection because Frank initially believed it was created for sale, and the museum does not accept commercially-produced art. (It later turned out the drawing was not for sale after all.)
More importantly, the Museum of Bad Art only accepts pieces that are created in earnest though it is clear something went very wrong, either in the concept or in execution of them.
Nonetheless, the museum accepts contributions from across the world.
"If they send us something, they never have to worry about having it back, clogging their attic or basement or wherever it came from," Frank said.
The museum occasionally auctions unwanted pieces for charity at the Dedham theater, but this is the first time it has turned to eBay.
"This is a special case," said Frank.
The decision to sell the Rose collection to deal with an operating budget deficit is rare, Frank said. He is pragmatic about the Bad Art auction.
"Whatever we get is not going to bring in enough to save the Rose," Frank said. "But if everybody did their part, maybe."
David Riley can be reached at 508-626-3919 or driley@cnc.com.
