Artist ‘Fraud’

The two photographs accompanying “At Newport: Into the Limelight,” Cathy Curtis’ review (Aug. 9) of the current exhibition at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, highlight the fraud that is perpetuated by modern “artists” on gullible art aficionados. The inner tube is clever, but is it art?

The painting of a hand by Philip Guston is a typical example of fraud masquerading as art. Conrad draws more realistic hands in his political cartoons. If a hand has to be painted, let’s have the hand of a baby with all of the tenderness, love and delicacy that it invokes, or that of an aged person signifying the trials and tragedies that have been suffered.

But the shakily delineated outline that is neither a glove nor a hand is ridiculous in the extreme. The three lines on the back of the object would lead one to believe it is a glove, but the appearance of a nail on the outstretched finger suggests a bare hand. To further compound the foolishness of the image, the suggestion of a thumb at the lower level of the painting would indicate that it is a left hand, but if that were so, the shirt button should be on the other side of the arm.

All round, the artist is either a poor observer of life, or one of the latter-day hoaxers who are the subject of “Column Right” (Commentary, same edition) in which it is suggested that the federal government’s sponsorship of the arts through the NEA cease at once!

PAUL S. McCAIG

Dana Point