5 Most Overrated Paintings of All Time

Some paintings are famous because of the beautiful work the artist put into them. Others are famous for no clear reason at all. Here are five of the most over-hyped paintings of all time — great names, perhaps, but not always great pictures.

1. Campbell's Soup Cans — Andy WarholWarhol made this in 1962: thirty-two soup cans painted onto a 20×16-inch canvas, one for each variety Campbell's then offered. Warhol had been making comic-strip paintings and, looking for a new idea, was told by a friend that he should make something ordinary Americans could relate to — like Campbell's soup. And he did just that. The painting is very famous, but not, in truth, as good as the masterpieces other artists have created.
2. Broadway Boogie-Woogie — Piet MondrianCompleted in 1943, this graphic painting is built from boxes of different colours. It hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and is enormously popular. It is said to be inspired by the grid of Manhattan and by the Broadway boogie-woogie. Yet, unlike other graphic paintings, it is fairly simple and lacks a special feeling — and among Mondrian's own works, it ranks somewhere below the best. Even so, it draws crowds all year round.
3. No. 5, 1948 — Jackson PollockAn abstract painting by the American master of abstraction, made in liquid paint on fibreboard. It is one of the most expensive paintings ever sold, a key work of American abstract expressionism, and a marker for the birth of action painting — yet much of its fame rests on that price tag rather than on anything the canvas offers beyond Pollock's other drip paintings. It was made spontaneously — Pollock drew no outlines or sketches beforehand. The painting measures eight feet by four and sold for about $135 million.
4. Guernica — Pablo PicassoCompleted in 1937, Guernica depicts a room where a bull looks over a woman crying for her dead child. At the centre a horse falls, its wound emphasised; beneath it lies a dead soldier, and destruction spreads everywhere. It is a war painting, made in black, white and grey, and it is one of Picasso's most famous works. Considered against his other work, though, it seems over-hyped. The theme is powerful — but it does little justice to Picasso's greater achievements.
5. Mona Lisa — Leonardo da VinciOne of the most famous paintings of all time, the Mona Lisa shows a woman seated before a beautiful landscape. It has been the centre of endless debate over its origin and over the identity of the sitter. The woman has no eyebrows, and that, in a way, is what makes the work special. The detailing is done very finely — yet, next to Leonardo's other works, the painting seems a little overrated. It has a historical importance all its own, but it is simply not as good as his best.

Disagree? Half the pleasure of art is the argument. For paintings I think deserve every ounce of their fame, see Paintings of the Renaissance.