Why “Paul The Wine Guy” (see previous post) decided to disappear:

I’ve decided to delete the “Understanding art for geeks” set from both Flickr and my blog. I started it all just for fun, with a genuine enthusiasm: I enjoyed a lot mocking pieces of art that I like, just to show the funny side of it all – or at least what was funny to me. It was personal, and it made me feel fine.

Then something happened, and online media “discovered” it all: I can’t possibly mention all the blogs and sites that posted about it, as there’s loads of them. Add to that Corriere della Sera (a national Italian newspaper) nicking the flickr set without linking back to it, and all the bloggers backing me with their solidarity. Corriere della Sera really made me angry for about a few minutes, then I thought Leonardo da Vinci or Paolo Uccello would’ve been mad at me, too.

So I took all the images off because I reckon I’ve made a mistake, i.e. modifying pieces of art with no right whatsoever of doing so.

I acted in good faith, of course. Personal enjoyment, sure. Arbitrarily putting my “licence” on it all. But since it all became common knowledge, and since I’m no Duchamp – he would’ve said any art manipulation is art itself – well, I’d rather delete everything as now it only feels like a big, huge mistake to me.

Even though they’re my own creation, even if images have been “manipulated” enough (for whatever that means), I don’t find it funny anymore.

I apologise to you all for deleting it all, but please don’t make it bigger than what it actually was: a bunch of ‘shopped images.

Lots of pictures from the series can be found online.