Disumbrationism was a

hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible. S ...

masquerading as an

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific art 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 defined ...

that was launched in 1924 by Paul Jordan-Smith, 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 wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

scholar, and authority on Robert Burton from

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Annoyed at the cold reception his wife Sarah Bixby Smith's realistic

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s had received from an art exhibition jury, Jordan-Smith sought revenge by styling himself as "Pavel Jerdanowitch" (

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: 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

Pacific islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

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

Waldorf-Astoria The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Street (Manhattan), 50th Streets, is a 47-story ...

. 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 painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...

Pop Hart George Overbury "Pop" Hart (May 10, 1868 – September 9, 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 Y ...

and

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

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

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

phallic A phallus (: phalli or phalluses) is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history, a figure with an erect penis is described as ''ithyphallic''. Any object that symbo ...

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

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' that the Disumbrationist paintings were meant as a spoof.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 ...

'' (

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

) *(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''

References

External links

*
The Disumbrationist School of Art
' at the

Museum of Hoaxes The Museum of Hoaxes is a website created by Alex Boese in 1997 in San Diego, California, as a resource for reporting and discussing hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false a ...

* ''{{usurped,
The Disumbrationist School of Painting
}'' Modern art Hoaxes in the United States 1920s hoaxes 1924 introductions 1924 in art