Priceless humor

Did anyone else not win a "one-of-a-kind, commissioned portrait of you, painted by Julian Schnabel: priceless?" offered in the most recent issue of the New Yorker magazine?

I'm impressed. This ad campaign is offensive on so many levels it's hard to figure out just where to start. It might have been easier to swallow if it were anyone besides Julian Schnabel. But that's almost besides the point. How about the crass tastelessness of commissioned (self-)portraits? I suppose you could ask Schnabel to paint a portrait of a homeless person: that might be fun. But why bother?

Comments

[Kathryn Deiss]

I was going to say "why would you want a portrait by him if provided like this in the first place?" And also does he really need to be taking part in this campaign? The days of family portraits may be over but there are a lot of egos out there who would jump on this one. I wouldn't!