Disumbrationism was a hoax masquerading as an

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defi ...

that was launched in 1924 by

Paul Jordan-Smith Paul Jordan-Smith (April 19, 1885 – June 17, 1971) was an American Universalist minister who also worked as a writer, lecturer and editor. Academically, he is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the 17th-century British author an ...

, a

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

scholar, and authority on Robert Burton from

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Annoyed at the cold reception his wife

Sarah Bixby Smith Sarah Bixby Smith (1871–1935) was a California writer and an advocate of women's education. ''Adobe Days'', her memoir of growing up in southern California, is considered a classic of the genre. Family and education Sarah Hathaway Bixby was bor ...

's realistic still lifes had received from an art exhibition jury, Jordan-Smith sought revenge by styling himself as "Pavel Jerdanowitch" ( Cyrillic: Па́вел Жердaнович), a variation on his own name. Never having picked up a paint brush in his life, he then painted ''Yes, we have no bananas'', a blurry, badly painted picture of a

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woman holding a banana over her head, having just killed a man and putting his skull on a stick. In 1925, Smith entered the banana picture under a new title of ''Exaltation'' in New York's "Exhibition" of the Independents at the

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. He made a suitably dark and brooding photograph of himself as Jerdanowitch, and submitted the work to the same group of critics as representative of the new school "Disumbrationism". He explained ''Exaltation'' as a symbol of "breaking the shackles of womanhood". To his amusement, if not to his surprise, the Disumbrationist won praise from the critics who had belittled his wife's realistic painting. More Disumbrationist paintings followed: a composition of zig-zag lines and eyeballs he called ''Illumination''; a garish picture of a black woman doing laundry that he called ''Aspiration'', and which a critic praised as "a delightful jumble of

Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

Pop Hart George Overbury "Pop" Hart (1868–1933) was an early 20th century American painter and watercolorist. Early life and education Hart was born in Cairo, Illinois, the eldest of four children, and raised in Rochester, New York. His father managed ...

and

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minstrelsy, with a lot of Jerdanowitch individuality";{{rp, 111 ''Gination'', an ugly, lopsided

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

; and a painting named ''Adoration'', of a woman worshipping an immense

phallic A phallus is a penis (especially when Erection, erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimesis, mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic. Any object that symbolically— ...

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, which was exhibited in 1927. The same year, Jordan-Smith confessed to the ''

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'' that the Disumbrationist paintings were meant as a

spoof Spoof, spoofs, spoofer, or spoofing may refer to: * Forgery of goods or documents * Semen, in Australian slang * Spoof (game), a guessing game * Spoofing (finance), a disruptive algorithmic-trading tactic designed to manipulate markets __NOTOC__ ...

.Multiple sources: *(27 January 1931)
Pictures Painted to "Show Up" the Critics Bring Fame to Mythical Modernistic Artist
''

Lawrence Journal-World The ''Lawrence Journal-World'' is a daily newspaper published in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, by Ogden Newspapers. History Though the ''Journal-World'' title came into existence in 1911, the paper dates itself to 1858, according to the v ...

'' (

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) *(14 August 1927)
INTERNATIONAL ART HOAX BARED BY LOS ANGELES AUTHOR
''

'' * Watson, Elmo Scott (14 October 1937)
Historic Hoaxes
''Clinton County Times'' *(19 September 1927)
Fine Arts: A Thoroughly Modern Picture
''

Lewiston Daily Sun ''The Lewiston Daily Sun'' was a newspaper published in Lewiston, Maine. Established in 1893, it became the dominant morning daily in the Lewiston- Auburn city and town area. In 1926, its publisher acquired the ''Lewiston Evening Journal'' and pu ...

References

External links

*
The Disumbrationist School of Art
' at the Museum of Hoaxes *
The Disumbrationist School of Painting
' Modern art Hoaxes in the United States 1920s hoaxes 1924 introductions 1924 in art