Should I bin my friend's art?

I'd just give it back to her, my dad painted a picture and gave it to me and I hung it on my wall for a while but when I downsized I simply gave it back and said I think this will look better on your wall as I don't have anywhere for it.
No offence was taken and it looks great in his dining room.
He would have been upset if I threw it in the bin though.

No she didn’t.

This thread is wild.

That was a joke from a different poster. It's from Friends, when this same scenario happened in the plot.

I do struggle to believe OP's piece is worse than Gladys!

The OP posted a picture on page 1.

That makes me feel a bit better. I was in this exact situation with an ENORMOUS painting given to me by a friend. It was a portrait of me with a boyfriend who turned out to be a psychopath. In the end, I had a big bonfire with it 😈

How do you know the picture is genuinely horrible if you haven’t seen it?

They may have needed the money, divorced, or one spouse died.
I sold a wedding gift painting when my husband died less than two years after our wedding; I just didn't want it in the house.

I don't care if it's Phoebe's from Friends, the picture is genuinely horrible to hang on a wall. If the OP liked it, more power to her. But she doesn't, she's playing hang the picture when the friend comes to see her, and make it disappear when she's gone.

I don't understand why it's so difficult to say to the friend "sorry, I didn't pack it well and got really damaged. It wasn't my style anyway, I love you but I prefer to choose my own pictures"

Some of you have serious problems with boundaries.

If you have a spare room, hang it in there?

I paint but usually only give to people who ask for it. I have done specific art for friends. A couple I've painted churches that mean a lot. Seascapes are always popular. Those paintings were cherished. One lady even took it to her nursing home eventually. Not huge paintings though. And I always say don't feel you need to hang them because art is personal.

I'd put it away. If she mentions it just say you haven't got around to putting it up. I doubt she'll mention it I wouldn't. It'd be a bit arrogant imo

@Joyjazz I think the picture looks very creepy and ugly in fact ! I would surely put it in a bedroom , hang it when she comes , show her it once and she won’t expect to see it again , bedroom is private . If you got another frame in your bedroom at the moment , just swap it around with the ugly picture when she comes around and then swap it back when she leaves . It won’t take that much room in your house to store in upright in your wardrobe on something , or laid flat under the bed ? I would not throw it away as it’s nasty , she spent so much time on it , and if you took it to charity shop , she might find it there one day and she would be so disappointed that you have lied to her .

Why do so many people think it’s ok to just blatantly lie to and mislead their friends? Just be honest ffs. If you talk to them kindly, but honestly and they really are your friends it will be fine. If they kick off that says more about them than you. The incessant need to fake please people and then moaning about it, or slagging them off behind their back is really shitty.

The OP never claimed that was the painting....

A PP did as a joke

You would chuck something in the bin that a good friend had spent many weeks making and is really proud of?

Yes. If they choose to spend weeks on something they dont even know their friend would even like, thats on them. It's pretty arrogant to assume that just because you created something everyone is going to absolutely love it. It could be utterly hideous. If I spend weeks making some naff piece of macaroni jewellery that resembles a primary school kids homework should I then expect my friend to wear it to her next business meeting?

So difficult without seeing it-

Is it just completely unreedmingly awful or just not to your specific taste-for example you like impressionist ballerinas and it is cubist or something like that?

Could you hang it in the loo and embrace the awfulness?

I had a friend once give me framed photographs-professionally taken-of HER children!!

@Alondra that isn’t the picture, it is Phoebe’s from Friends.

For those asking which episode, you can see an example of Phoebe’s artwork hung in her flat in a number of episodes

Tell her that you you’ve lost the hammer so can’t put it up.

That was Penny’s solution in The Big Bang Theory.

I wouldn't even take a picture, it'll give me nightmares just seeing it on my phone.

The friend could have spent years making it, it's still horrible. Personally I would have been honest when I received it, but as the OP has gone to so much trouble trying to spare her friend's feelings, the move the right time to make it disappear for good. And it needs to disappear because it's a monstrosity, NOT just an amateur painting.

It's beyond horrific.

This^
Although I think you've been put in a position by your friend who just assumes you would like it. We have a friend who keeps saying 'we'd love' one of his paintings and even picked a wall that one of his paintings would 'look amazing' on. He failed to see the importance of the family photo's currently occupying the space. Some people's lack of self-awareness is astounding!!

Yes I threw away the awful painting my old amateur artist mate Picasso gave me as a present. It wasn’t to my taste, his art was never going to be popular, the bin was the best place for such infantile scribble. I’ve never regretted it.

Tell her you're moving and the new painting will not be coming with you, give her the opportunity to either have the painting back to regift etc or let her know you'll be taking to a charity shop

don't put the painting in the bin and don't reuse the frame

Friends episode "the one with Ross' grant"

Frasier episode "our father whose art aint heaven"

😂

OK which episode ? I need to watch that while I do my tread.

I dont agree with giving unsolicited art work to people. Art is highly personal and you put them in a really awkward position of either having to be honest that you hate it or lying and then pretending you like it.

Yes, the intention was thoughtful and kind but art is so, so subjective that you cannot just assume that what you like, others will also like.

I think if this is a good friend, I'd be honest. I'd say "X, thank you so much for the gift- it was incredibly thoughtful and kind of you. However, I have to be honest with you as I respect you- it's just not my style and it really doesnt go with the decoration in my new house. I appreciate your gesture and my intentions arent to hurt you but I need to be honest with you"

If she gets angry about it then that says more about her and a good friend will accept that your intentions are also good. If I was the friend, I'd far rather someone be honest with me than lie to my face and have to put it back up every time I came round. Definitely look at the friends episode and the Frasier episode of the mess you can get in by not being honest with people about art. It only leads to more and more lies in the end. Honesty doesnt have to be unkind or rude, it can actually be very respectful but its all down to the delivery of it.