2014 Pavel Jerdanowitch Painting Contest Results



The Losers of the 2014 contest are Matt Sanna and Dustin Khebzou from Philadelphia.

The artistic collaboration signed their masterpiece with the chalk name "Stud Powers." The losers are awarded a certificate of dishonor.


True Realities of Untapped Potential by Stud Powers

Badness: 0.485

Badness is the fraction of the voters which selected the painting as the worst. Each voter was shown five randomly selected paintings. Therefore the average badness is 0.2. The maximum possible badness is one and the minimum possible badness is zero.



Jerdanowitch Jr's choice is the untitled painting by Olga Farafonova from Russia

Deciding who best embodies the dubious artistic principles of my grandfather is never easy. There must be some talent, but it must be offset by bad taste and flawed artistic decisions. It cannot depend on feeble efforts, but on the hard work of persistent pursuit of meaninglessness. Not just any meaninglessness will do the job. There must be some hint of the ineffable, the inexpressible, a suggestion that behind that partly opened door lies...nothing whatever. The Disumbrationist work must evoke the spirit of Mullah Nasr Eddin's Turkish gravesite: an imposing and massively locked gate that stands by itself, without a wall.

This year, Olga Farafonova's untitled painting demonstrates that the artist has a firm grasp of these qualities. Everything about the painting shows that she understands the true Disumbrationist spirit: a modicum of genuine talent deeply compromised by awkward composition, a vile palette, and ambiguity alluding to nothing worthwhile, a centermost matrushka without a face. Bravo, Olga!

Pavel Jerdanowitch, II


Untitled by Olga Farafonova


Webmaster's choice is Menancipation by Estonian artist Riho Koppel.


Menancipation by Riho Koppel

The painting depicts male struggle with emancipation of men in modern society.

View the rest of the 2014 contest entries

An artist or an ape?

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