A carefully juried selection of genuinely bad attempts at painting, mostly in the genre of portraiture (but also featuring landscapes and abstracts), with rigorous standards of  total badness unremittingly applied.  Housed in Dedham, Massachusetts, a few miles south of Boston (home of all ultra-high standards and strict judgmentalism).  The exhibits are guaranteed repulsive and irredeemable, and the subjects include predictable ones like Elvis and more surprising ones like Mary Todd Lincoln, along with many anonymous (and mercifully unrecognizable) common folk. MOBA prides itself on art that is not just awkward, amateurish or unskilled but art that aspires to greatness and fails with spectacular bathetic results. Many items have been found in the trash or purchased in junk/used shops for less than $5.00, most are anonymous. For details of visiting, consult: www.museumofbadart.org .

Artist’s conception of artists’ conceptions in MOBA: