ARTS APPRECIATION

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT 2

The National Gallery in London has a gauche and disastrous security guard named, Mr.

Bean. Mr. Bean is a sleepyhead, he often falls asleep during his duty hours, and due to that

reason, the board of directors in the National Gallery all agreed that they will terminate him since

he was useless, but the chairman thwarted it, he is against with the decision of the board of

directors. And because they badly want to despise Mr. Bean, they decided and all agreed that

Mr. Bean should be the in charge in the reallocation of 1871 portrait Whistler’s Mother by James

McNeill Whistler in the Grierson Art Gallery Los Angeles City.

And because of the gauche and disastrous characteristics of Mr. Bean, there is no doubt when

he accidently sneezed on the 1871 James McNeill Whistler famous painting Whistler's Mother,

that causes why it stains the portrait and with his panic he tried to remove or wipe away the

sneeze droplets using an ink-soaked handkerchief. And when the ink-soaked handkerchief did

not work he tried to remove it using the paint thinner, but as he swipes the cloth with a paint

thinner, it also removes the woman's face. So, Mr. Bean tried to reconstruct the painting through

reworking the face of the women in the painting through with his pen, and it resulted to a bad

outcome. And when David learned about it, he was so horrified to what happen in the portrait,

and because of fright that he might lost his job, David gets drunk to somewhat calm himself and

forget what had happen. Moreover, due to guilt, Mr. Bean sneaks into the Art Gallery to replace

the altered portrait with a fake replica of it, and a brilliant idea came up into his mind, it is when

he used the egg white to coat the portrait for it to look authentic, and he succeeded because all

the people that are present in the Art Gallery believed that the portrait that was being presented

was the original portrait. So, as for my opinion, the part of the movie that was disturbing is when
the general public, art critiques and professional experts in art, were not able to notice that the

painting that was being shown in the Art Gallery was just only the replica of the altered portrait

painting Whistler's Mother. And, due to that reason, we can therefore say that the value of the

original 1871 James McNeill Whistler portrait Whistler's Mother is affected because the fake

portrait that was being presented in the art gallery was not been distinguished by many, so it

affects the value of the altered original portrait because it was not noticeable that the displayed

portrait was fake, meaning the replica of the original painting that had been altered had gained

the conviction of the general public, art critiques and professional art experts. Also, the crowd

forced Mr. Bean to have his speech and through his speech he was able to get the crowd’s

approval

Moreover, as for me I’m torn between yes and no to the question, if the quality of art can be

determined by professional experts, can be the interpretation of Bean be accounted for as a

valid/acceptable. Half of me yes, because even if we say that the painting that bean replaced is

just fake or a replica, it still managed to convince many people that this is the real art piece,

therefore we can easily say that a fake replica really looks like an original aesthetic and authentic

art. While on the other hand is no, because it is unfair to the original portrait that has aesthetical

and authentic value, because it can easily compare be to a fake replica.

To conclude, an art replica can easily gain the conviction of the general public, art critiques

and even professional art experts. Just like what just happened in the movie, the replica of the

1871 James McNeill Whistler's portrait Whistler's Mother, was able to convinced and perceived

a lot of people. And through this we can say that the aesthetical value of the original portrait was

being disregarded for it can easily be replaced by an art replica. Also, this movie can be a proof
that not all, art critiques and professional art experts, can distinguished whether if an art is

original, because the replica can easily deceive people that they are original art even if it was not.