George W. Bush's Paintings Slammed by Ex-Spy

Valerie Plame not a fan of former president's artwork

Picasso he's not. But former President George W. Bush is a decent painter.

That's an art expert's view about three works by Bush, which were revealed in a serious of emails hacked from his email account. In a review for Vulture, New York critic Jerry Saltz raved about the bathtub and shower-themed paintings, arguing they "border on the visionary". "The light in each is soft, subtle, embracing, even oscillating," Saltz expands. "As if the unreal has become a companion to the painter."

But not everyone's so enthralled with Bush's post-presidential activities. Valerie Plame, the exposed Bush-era CIA operative (@ValeriePlame1) wrote on Twitter, "I just don't know what to make of the paintings purportedly by G W Bush exposed thru hacking. Creepy on several levels..."

Of course Plame isn't exactly a disinterested party. Her CIA cover was blown - and her spy career effectively ended - during Bush's first term. Her husband, Joe Wilson, had been tasked with investigating whether Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq tried to purchase nuclear materials in Africa. Her outing was viewed as revenge against Wilson for undercutting the Bush administration's rationale for the Iraq War.

Via Vulture, and Politix reporting.

How would you rate George W. Bush’s painting skills?

[PNWest]

Cut the guy a bit of slack. At least he is not out there starting wars or destroying the economy. Let the man paint in peace.

[bek]

Yes, true.... he quit doing that a few years ago.

[PoliticalSpice]

Paint in peace.? Sure, from his cell in the Hauge, awaiting trial for war crimes.

[InjusticeSucks]

Man you got to stop eating all them Caned winies your starting to sound like one.

[Rocker]

Looks better than I could do. I showed off one of my examples to the class once and was called an 'impressionist'. Only trouble was, it was supposed to have been a 'still life' painting of a sleeping cat.

[Fishbone345]

@PoliticalSpice "awaiting trial for war crimes."
Only if we try the Congress that voted yes on sending troops. Unless you forget the President cannot send the military into countries without Congressional approval. I give Bush his fair share of credit for what he did, but his cabinet, and Congress did their fair share in saying "Sure lets do that!"

[Jack-Black]

So...A x spy does not like a painting that was suppose to be private and was exposed due some geek thug hacker.....screw her.

[Libertyiskey]

What about her being a spy supposed to be private till she was ousted by one in Bush's administration? Screw them?

[Jack-Black]

@Libertyiskey Nah screw her.

[captchaos69]

@Libertyiskey First of all the wench was working in the office when she was "outed". I guess it would have been ok if Bush would have given guns to Mexican drug gangs to KILL American boarder guards. Or reveal the identity of a Navy Seal who was KILLED by terrorists. She just quit her job because her democrat operative husband couldn't derail Bush's plan to hit back at the muj.

[Libertyiskey]

@captchaos69 you see that's the problem you think since the next guy did bad things its not big deal what happened before and that's why we keep getting shitty career politicians keep doing worse and worse things. Be mad at both an quit the partisan bullshit. Just cause she was working in the office then doesn't mean she wasn't on the field before or that she was going to e going out in the future. It compromises her job and her families safety and that your ok with that cause her husband was a democrat (who was right about their not being any weapons of mass destruction) is horrendous and shows you have a disregard for human life just cause they don't agree with every single thing you believe in. I am no fan of Obama and no fan of Bush, they're both horrible presidents, but keep electing people because of the letter behind their name, our country has turned out pretty well from doing that hasn't it?

[captchaos69]

@Libertyiskey That's where you are wrong. I don't elect people because of the letter behind their name. As a matter of fact I voted AGAINST people basically since Reagan, not FOR the one who got my vote. And you are right that sucks. When you vote for the lesser of two evils, you still get evil. As far as G.W. goes, he wasn't the best persident we've ever had, but he certainly was not the worst. He got dealt a crappy hand when he took office. The economy was slowly circling the drain when he came in, then the planes hit the towers. He had to deal with a hostile press and congress, plus idiots at the state level after a hurricane. So all in all I believe he did ok. My biggest gripe with him was caving in on the bailouts in 08 that started the economy down the drain. Obama has done nothing to stop the economic collapse and all indicators point to some real problems in the very near future. I think Bush gave it an honest effort, but he was up against some real obsticles that many could not be overcome. Was it his fault he couldn't overcome some of those things, I don't know but I believe he tried. As far as Plame goes, I didn't say things were ok because her husband was a democrat. Him being a democrat has nothing to do with it, him being an idiot does. He went to the middle east to deliberately debunk the WMD theory. Hussein used them against his own people, so where did they go? Between the UN and people like Wilson he had over 6 months to hide them. They were there, and they are still there, unless Iran found them, then WE will get them.

[Dan_Tien]

"former President George W. Bush is a decent painter. That's an art expert's view..." That is an "art expert" who wants to draw attention to themselves. The painting displayed in the photo above is poorly rendered, lacks depth and perspective, and is a banal representational rendered drawing of Bush taking a shower and looking in the mirror. I've seen better paintings in high school art displays.

[PoliticalSpice]

It's comments like that that kept hitler out of the art institute when he applied. If they'd accepted him, if bush had decided to paint instead of run for office. You art critics are really wreaking havoc on the world. Stop it.

[stepped_in_it]

@PoliticalSpice Ok, I now see it. Sunday Silly Spice day! You are full of 'em today!

[PoliticalSpice]

@stepped_in_it Not to mention I paint too...

[stepped_in_it]

@PoliticalSpice Me too....ohh, wait.....walls and ceilings don't count, do they?

[PoliticalSpice]

@stepped_in_it I painted on a wall once as a kid and got yelled at, it traumatized me so bad I switched to canvass.

[Raptor]

George W. Bush's painting, give me a brake, the man was the worst president since Herbert Clark Hoover and his painting sucks.

[PoliticalSpice]

Like Hitler, a mediocre painter. So, torture, pre-emptive war based on lies, and laws repealing liberty isn't all they have in common.

[frigginhell]

@PoliticalSpice Nah, Hitler's stuff looked better. This is almost cartoonish. It kind of reminds me of some of my first year art classes in college. Not the better ones either.

[PoliticalSpice]

@frigginhell well hitler was better at bringing hell to earth also. What are we saying here, that Bush doesn't queit measure up to the Hitler standard. Ok I'll give you that. Bush Bush finished what Hitler never suceed in. He laid the ground legal infastructure for bringing fascism to the u.s. Hitler never could.

[frigginhell]

@PoliticalSpice No, I'm saying Hitler was a better painter than GWB. That's all I'm saying. Well, that and GWB's painting looks like crap.

[PoliticalSpice]

@frigginhell

[whataGOVwehave]

English isn't his thing....so this is good.

[armed_liberal]

He is a C student at most things. At least nobody is dying or going bankrupt because of his paintings.

[whataGOVwehave]

@armed_liberal yup see George can paint his own portrait.....taxpayers just spent $20,000 on Obama's new portrait

[armed_liberal]

@whataGOVwehave
Taxpayers don't pay for presidential portraits, they come from private donations (since 1961). Republicans speak first and argue fact checks second.

[whataGOVwehave]

@armed_liberal a donation.....I like that...people are so nice

[DARSB]

He's every bit as fine a painter as he was a President

[PNWest]

Even better!

[Litdes]

He lacks perspective in both capacities.

[captchaos69]

Given that perspective, I guess when Obama leaves office we'll see some stick figures in crayon.

[PoliticalSpice]

You art critics endanger world peace. If Hitler had remained in Vienna studying art, if Bush had become a painter instead of politician...

[bek]

Ha! Boy, that's the truth.

[Denizen_Kate]

Politix, once again a completely misleading headline. Plame didn't slam the paintings, she said that outing them via hacking was creepy. Shameless spin on your part to create sensation where none exists. Slow news day?

[OhWiseOne]

Agreed.

[PoliticalSpice]

The paintings are kind of creepy alone.

[Republican5001]

Sad day when even I have to agree with Kate...

weak sauce Politix...

[Fishbone345]

Her coming to his defense by saying outing his paintings was creepy is somewhat ironic though, don't you think?

[Bobolinsky]

I'm trying to figure out why Valerie Plame's opinion of an amateur painter's attempts at being creative other than to drag up that Richard Armitage outed her as a CIA employee.

I'm also trying to figure out why Politix hasn't done a story about a person and a speech that's been buzzing around the conservative and libertarian sites this weekend.

Dr. Benjamin Carson Addresses National Prayer Breakfast, Criticizes Obamacare
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/0...

Ben Carson for President
The Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon has two big ideas for America.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788...

[kathyparsell]

My guess would be that very few could say anything negative about what he says.

[DARSB]

@kathyparsell Oh, here, let me try:

First, basing a tax system for the largest economy in the history of the planet on "tithing" - a concept apparently popular with Bronze Age barbarians 2500 to 5000 years ago - and then relying again on that mythology to claim the "proportionality" of tithing is "fair" - is simply naive. 10% of a billion dollars won't hurt the billionaire in the same way 10% of one thousand dollars will hurt an elderly widow. To declare otherwise is not too surprising from a neurosurgeon, not an economist, whose income is certainly into six figures and possibly well into the 7 figure range.

Second, the Health Savings Account idea is really popular with two groups - bankers and insurance companies, neither of which have shown themselves recently to be all that reliable as custodians of other peoples' money. And it overlooks the actual costs of therapies. Need a bone marrow transplant? That's $250,000. Dick Cheney's heart transplant was around $1,000,000 - how many 7-11 managers can sock away that much before they need to spend it?

But what rubs me the wrong way is this "Now they have some control over their own health care. And very quickly they're going to learn how to be responsible." It's another iteration of that despicable "47%" commentary from failed Republican candidate Mitt Romney and ignores the control people already have, like to say no to a surgeon and seek a second opinion.

[stepped_in_it]

@DARSB That is the biggest, tallest soap box I've seen you on DARSB. You should climb on it more often!

[Bambi]

Who cares what Plame thinks of his paintings or that she thinks at all. I personally know several professional painters and their works and President Bush's works are really quite good.

[Cheenoguy]

Amazes me that people want to trash an American patriot who risked her life to spy for her country who had her life put at risk because a politician threw a tantrum because their lies were exposed.

[KyleMFb]

I hate bush for allowing 9/11 to happen and i hate him for and his idiot VP for making but loads of money by invading two different country's but GWs art skills are of a child living in section 8 housing...I'm defiantly bias but iv have seen better paintings by children....I thought presidents were supose to gifted???? He got bit by the stupid bug

[theroadtohell1]

Has g.w.b any paintings of the w.m.d found in iraq oh wait.....

[harold_lloyd]

Is this something we should take the time to care about?

[CommonSense]

It's good. Bush should've been a painter instead of going into politics.

[MadAmerican]

And this woman is an expert how?

[jessejaymes]

I'd have to become addicted to meth to work up enough energy to care one way or the other. Matter of fact typing this makes me want a nap.

[harold_lloyd]

On a side note, somebody should have gone to prison over the exposure of Valerie Plame. That was treason.

[Fishbone345]

I'm not much for paintings anyway, especially Realist types.

[seedtick]

Well, when anyone does a painting, it is his/her own personal expression of the subject matter. Anyone who does not like it should just ignore it and go away. It is personal with Valerie, so her opinion is flawed with regards to his artistic merit. I could care less what she thinks...or thinks, for that matter.