Chapmans Show Penis Noses, Dinosaurs in Liverpool (Karen Wright)

Created by : Francis Goodwin View profile

By Karen Wright

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Tate Liverpool is hosting the first British museum show, ``Bad Art for Bad People,'' devoted to the attitude-fueled work of Dinos and Jake Chapman.

The Chapman Brothers -- like Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst -- approach art in a gum-chewing, slouchy manner and are best known for their flinch-inducing models and vitrines filled with toy models. One of the most talked about booths at the Frieze art fair in London last autumn was that of the White Cube gallery. The Chapman Brothers constructed a dark, cramped studio and in the midst of the fray were busily painting portraits.

I stumbled upon the stand by accident and sat in the empty chair, offering to have my likeness painted. Suave director Tim Marlow swooped up and said, ``That will be 4,500 pounds ($8,883) plus VAT.'' I was out of the chair as if it was electrified.

Around me were images of those who had gone before, and a very mixed bag it was. There were, to be fair, some good ones based mainly on proto-surrealistic ideas, though more of the portraits looked like bad college efforts.

In 2001, the Chapmans bought a set of Goya's famous ``Disasters of War'' etchings and added their own comic-book touches. Sacrilege, was the general critical response. Better known to the public are works like ``Zygotic Acceleration Biogenetic De-sublimated Libidinal Model'' (1995), a sculpture of conjoined children with penis noses and vagina mouths.