Belgian painter used live pig tattoos, skinned them and framed them into paintings worth 1.5 million. Netizens: Is this art?

In people's common perception, artists have some little quirks. For example, Beethoven liked to pour water out when taking a bath to find inspiration. However, the floor of his house often leaked because of this. This made the neighbors downstairs very unhappy; Mi Fu, a famous calligrapher in ancient my country, loved stones and not only liked to collect them, but would also fall asleep holding his favorite stones; A book boy who is responsible for cleaning the study room; Yoshiro Nakamatsu, who has obtained more than 3,300 invention patents in his life, likes to dive underwater and put his brain in a state of hypoxia to get inspiration.

In addition, sometimes in order not to follow the path taken by their predecessors, artists will also create many unusual ways to create. This is the case with the Belgian new conceptual painter Wim Devoy. He is known as the "opposite of minimalism" and shocked the world with his bold and unique artistic style. However, he is best known not for his artistic style, but for his canvases. He is good at "pig skin painting", which as the name suggests is painting on the back of live pigs in the form of tattoos. Friends who have had tattoo experience know that tattoos are not painless. The more complex the pattern, the more painful the experience will be. People can feel pain, and so can pigs. Therefore, Wim Devoy's use of live pigs for painting is restricted by the Animal Protection Act in Belgium. At first, he bought pig skins for painting at a slaughterhouse in the United States. Soon after, he realized that the effect of painting with pig skins was not as good as painting on live pigs, so he went to China, where pig slaughter was not restricted, and founded A breeding farm.

In 2004, Devoy came to China and began to concentrate on his business of tattooing and painting live pigs, and named his farm "Art Farm". Because of the novel form and his good painting skills, pigskin painting was instantly welcomed by many people, and orders were in short supply. Often the price of a pigskin painting, peeled and framed, could reach 150. A huge one. Therefore, in 2011, he established another breeding farm in Shunyi District, Beijing, and raised hundreds of pigs as his "canvas".

If you ignore the fate of these pigs, they live a good life on Devoy's farm. In order to ensure the health of the pigs and their shiny and beautiful pig skins, these pigs grow up eating corn, grains, fruits and other nutritious feeds, and specialized veterinarians will give them physical examinations. They take baths two to three times a day, have fans and sprinklers to cool them down in the summer, and even apply sunscreen on their bodies; there are heaters in the pigsties in the winter. However, the pigs that grew up so comfortably are just to provide a good skin.

When Devoy was doing tattoo painting, the pigs actually couldn't bear the strong and continuous sting. However, he insisted that the best effect would be achieved by painting on live pigs. Therefore, a "pig skin painting" often takes a long time to complete. Some works even have to be paused dozens of times in the middle to inject anesthesia to the waking pig. As you can imagine, each pig suffered considerable pain in order for Devoy to complete these works. After experiencing such suffering, they are not immune to the fate of slaughter. If pigs could have human thoughts, they would probably rather choose life on an ordinary farm.

After dozens to hundreds of hours, a pigskin painting is completed, and the pig’s mission is over. Next, it will be slaughtered by the staff, completely skinned, and then professionally embalmed before being mounted in a picture frame. In this way, a complete pigskin painting can be considered successful. Since falling in love with pigskin painting for no reason at the age of 34, Devoy has been engaged in this art form for 20 years and has completed thousands of pigskin paintings. Undoubtedly, this also means that thousands of pigs were used for sashimi painting while they were still alive, and then killed and skinned.

Devoy's unique pigskin paintings are also famous in the world. In 2012, he held a special art exhibition of pigskin paintings at the Louvre, making more people aware of pigskin paintings. These paintings have also been collected by some well-known international galleries. In addition to the skinned pigs, some of the live pig works that he painted on a large area or that he was particularly satisfied with will also be made into specimens for exhibition.

While the pigskin paintings made Devoy famous and wealthy, they also aroused protests from animal rights activists. Some people believed that artistic creation had no boundaries, while others thought his approach was too cruel. Netizens also said: Is this art? I can't appreciate such inhumane paintings.