The Whitest Protest Movement in Global History
By 
People who need to reconsider their priorities:
It’s nothing personal, says Ben Ewen-Campen, he just doesn’t think French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir is much of a painter. Monday, the Harvard postdoc joined some like-minded aesthetes for a playful protest outside the Museum of Fine Arts. The rally, which mostly bewildered passersby, was organized by Max Geller, creator of the Instagram account Renoir Sucks at Painting, who wants the MFA to take its Renoirs off the walls and replace them with something better. Holding homemade signs reading “God Hates Renoir” and “Treacle Harms Society,” the protesters ate cheese pizza purchased by Geller, and chanted: “Put some fingers on those hands! Give us work by Paul Gauguin !” and “Other art is worth your while! Renoir paints a steaming pile!” Craig Ronan, an artist from Somerville, learned about the protest on Instagram and decided to join. “I don’t have any relationship with these people aside from wanting artistic justice,” he said. The museum hasn’t commented on the fledgling movement, but a few folks walking by Monday seemed amused. “I love their sense of irony,” said Liz Byrd, a grandmother from Phoenix who spent the morning in the museum with her daughter and grandchild. “I love Renoir, but I think this is great.
On first glance, this is just stupid. But on second, it’s actually pretty offensive because it lampoons those who actually care about social change, trivalizing actual issues, whether one is on the left or right. And I guess that’s fine if they want to–it’s a free country if you are a rich, white, heterosexual male–but these people probably laugh at real protesters and find them worth mocking.
Also, regardless of the merits of the art, Renoir fathered Jean Renoir and anything that led to Rules of the Game cannot be bad.