Why the art world is trying to cancel Hannah Gadsby.

Australian comedian and Netflix sensation, Hannah Gadsby, has found themselves facing unprecedented criticism from a rather random subcategory of people: art snobs.

So how did we get here?

On the back of their latest Netflix stand-up show, Something Special, Gadsby has launched an exhibition with the Brooklyn Museum titled 'It's Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby'. The exhibition looks at the life and lifework of Pablo Picasso under a contemporary and feminist lens. 

Watch the trailer for 'It's Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby'. Post continues after video. 

Gadsby provided the narration for the ‘Pablo-matic’ audio tour which features over 100 works by both Picasso and women artists. The critical exhibition comes in stark contrast to a whole host of exhibitions planned this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death in 1973.

The comic found an international audience after their breakout comedy special Nanette became a phenomenon on Netflix. The special was a recording of the Tasmanian comedian’s award-winning comedy special of the same name which explored misogyny, trauma and art, or more specifically, Gadsby’s not-so-enthused views on seminal artist Pablo Piccaso.

In one part of the comedy special, Gadsby posed that Picasso “just put a kaleidoscope filter” on his penis when he started the cubism movement. In short, they really don't like him! 

In case you’re not clued up on the history of Picasso (you’re forgiven), the art pioneer had a history of narcissism, bullying, and objectifying women. 

According to Picasso's own granddaughter, he autographed each of his paintings by using the blood of his loved ones as ink. Marina Picasso described the artist’s treatment of his female subjects in her memoir, Picasso: My Grandfather, saying: "[He] bewitched them, ingested them, and crushed them onto his canvas… once they were bled dry, he would dispose of them."

When Picasso was 61 years old and dating a 21-year-old student, he once told her: “For me, there are only two kinds of women: goddesses and doormats.” He once famously told French painter Françoise Gilot that “women are machines for suffering”. 

So, it's fair to say that the artist isn't the greatest bloke... 

Quick! Have a listen to the latest episode of The Spill. Post continues after podcast.

Now you may be asking your screen right now: why does Hannah Gadsby, a stand-up comedian, care about Pablo Picasso? 

Along with doing stand-up comedy and TV, Hannah comes from a background of art academia. They graduated with an Art History degree in 2003 at the Australian National University where they majored in art history and curatorship. 

Gadsby's exhibition on Picasso (and all of his shortcomings) has just opened in Brooklyn but so far, the reviews are rather savage. 

Art critic Jason Farago wrote a scathing review in the New York Times where he did not mince his words. “The ambitions here are at GIF level, though perhaps that's the point.” He also criticised the museum’s choice of women artists that they showcased: "I left sad and embarrassed that this show doesn't even try to do what it promises: put women artists on equal footing with the big guy.” 

In an ARTNews review, critic Alex Greenberger called the show “disastrous” and drew attention to the choice to display, Cecily Brown, Triumph of the Vanities II (2018) in the exhibition, which they claimed had “little to say about Picasso, an artist whom Brown has spoken of admiringly.”

Greenberger also called attention to the fact that the anti-Picasso exhibition in fact does feature a lot of Picasso. “Most of the works in this show are by Picasso, strangely enough. This in itself constitutes an issue – you can’t re-centre art history if you’re still centreing Picasso.”

If you've lost track of the major gripes from art snob circles: the criticism around the exhibition ranged from there being too much Picasso to too much women who apparently don’t have enough to do with Picasso.

Both reviews also levelled criticism at the exhibition for including commentary written by Hannah across the show. “Gadsby’s quotes, which are printed above more serious art historical musings, are larded with the language of Twitter,” ARTNews’ Greenberger wrote. Farago described the comedian's musings as similar to “bathroom graffiti, or maybe Instagram captions.” 

It’s worth noting that the main reviews doing the rounds – by the New Yorks Times, ARTSNews, and Hell Gate – were all written by men. 

So far male reviewers of @Hannahgadsby’s co-curated Brooklyn Museum Picasso show have slagged it for being about Picasso, not being enough about Picasso, not being funny enough, not being serious enough, having the wrong paintings by women, & having paintings by the wrong women.

— Kaz Cooke (@reallykazcooke) June 2, 2023

Along with being savaged by some art critics, people online have added to the pile-on. However, most of their criticism has little to do with the merits of Gadsby’s involvement in the exhibition, but instead to declare that the comedian isn’t funny. 

This isn’t the first time this opinion has been loudly shouted by (mostly) men online. Every time Gadsby is either in the news or releases another Netflix special, some corners of the internet like to reiterate that they don’t find the Australian comedian very funny. 

Does anyone actually think Hannah Gadsby is funny?

— John Mcgowan (@JohnMcg58410257) June 5, 2023

Cool story, bro.

Amid the controversy, Brooklyn Museum’s director of digital communications, Brooke Baldeschwiler, posted a video of the exhibition to her Instagram Story, with the caption, “Come @ us haters.”

In an op-ed for the Art Newspaper, Brooklyn Museum’s director Anne Pasternak defended the inclusion of the Australian comedian’s perspective in the Picasso retrospective. “To those who question whether Gadsby’s voice belongs in this exhibit, I would simply ask: Whose interests are threatened by including it? Or, who benefits from excluding it?” she wrote.

In a sea of Picasso exhibitions scheduled this year which will celebrate the father of cubism, does it really matter that one, measly Brooklyn show approaches Picasso from another view? 

Here’s a wild idea: if you don’t like Hannah’s humour, and you really like Picasso despite his many (and we mean many) controversial moments, then maybe, just maybe... don’t go to the show. 

Image: Getty + Mamamia.