Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories
Jon McNaughton, the painter from Utah who has been described as the ‘unofficial artist of the Trump administration’, has produced what may be his most fawning work yet. This is no mean feat, in Rakewell’s opinion, when one remembers such canvases as MAGA Ride, in which the president ‘manoeuvres through a corrupt Washington DC’ atop a stars-and-stripes bedecked motorcycle.
And yet, as Twitter discovered with glee yesterday, The Masterpiece trumps all. Having set up easel in the nave of an improbably narrow cathedral, the president-cum-maestro lifts the curtain on his most recent creation – a blotchy pastiche of Monet’s Nymphéas, said by McNaughton to represent ‘how history will remember this presidency’.
Presented with a canvas this nearly blank, the Twitter brigade needed little invitation to step in:
Do your thing Twitter. pic.twitter.com/gbYmzpSHh6
— tinypulitzer (@tinypulitzer) August 20, 2019
Fixed it pic.twitter.com/WYrAxSGplr
— ElElegante101 (@skolanach) August 20, 2019
— Author Leah Yehudah (@LeahYehudah_) August 20, 2019
Not sure about this new "Trump unveiling his masterpiece" painting. pic.twitter.com/mbOJ6gKcta
— Ben Mund (@BenMund) August 21, 2019
Some offered suggestions as to where the president might find inspiration for his next creation….
— Estee Kay (@EsteeKay2) August 21, 2019
ah yes, Donald Trump's "orange period" pic.twitter.com/MK00yLOYR6
— Born Miserable (@bornmiserable) August 20, 2019
I can’t be the first? pic.twitter.com/0HK2SrXnrz
— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) August 20, 2019
…while others couldn’t see further than the president’s right thumb:
Is… is that his… oh dear god no pic.twitter.com/DVbLGrh6X3
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) August 20, 2019
Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch at rakewell@apollomag.com or via @Rakewelltweets.
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![Masterpiece [Re]discovery 2022. Photo: Ben Fisher Photography, courtesy of Masterpiece London](http://www.apollo-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/MPL2022_4263.jpg)
Has the Fitzwilliam lost the hang of things?