“Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe.” (Lunch on the grass 1995)  oil on canvas by Yue Minjun. Photographed by Paul Goldfinger at the Princeton University Art Museum.

Yue Minjun (b. 1962) grew up during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960’s in China.  As an artist, he is a member of the “cynical realism” school. Yue Minjun lives in Beijing and decided to create a laughing matter out of Manet’s 1862 work of the same name.  This painting sold for $1.2 million recently.  It is currently on display at the Princeton U. Art Museum. It’s rare that I find myself laughing while viewing serious art.

That is until later lightening struck twice.  I picked up a copy of the Daily Princetonian on Nassau Street where a front page photo shows a campus art display with some unusual accoutrements attached by mischievous students. The caption read, “An unknown group of students has placed hundreds of condoms on the student art project known as “The Nest.”

I wonder if they received an art grant to pay for those decorations. Who says that sky-high SAT scores might diminish the tendency for college students to engage in low humor?

SPEARHEAD  “Say Hey (I Love You)”  From the soundtrack of the movie Valentine’s Day