Misunderstood Artists of the 21st Century

Who is our Vincent van Gogh?

There are countless examples of brilliant artists who died in obscurity scattered throughout history. Think of Vincent van Gogh, who sold only one documented painting in his lifetime. Or Herman Melville, who passed away thinking Moby-Dick was a failure. Or the cult singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who sold fewer than 5,000 copies of his three albums during his lifetime.

These artists were only recognized for their genius after they died. Given these historical examples, it stands to reason that the same thing is probably happening right now. In fact, there are likely thousands of digital Van Goghs out there, struggling to be discovered in the contemporary art and media environment.

Who might they be? Let’s take a look at some possibilities.

Tony Bertoletti

Bertoletti arrived on the New York stand-up circuit in 2009 as an up-and-coming angry guy with very fresh material about the differences between New York and New Jersey. In 2022, a big break for this “comedian” seemed to be imminent when he was booked on the Joe Rogan Experience to rant about trans people. But sadly, he got into an altercation with his Uber driver on the way to the studio and missed the podcast. His career has never recovered, and his insights about the Holland Tunnel remain tragically unrecorded.

Specktaculous

In the crowded field of men's lifestyle content, few figures have been as consequential — or as overlooked — as Specktaculous. While his looksmaxxing rival Clavicular has a dedicated army of followers, Specktaculous is the one who deserves credit for developing the category’s signature blend of testosterone-fueled skincare routines and unsolicited life advice. Perhaps someday history will recognize him for having pioneered the streaming format of “having a drug overdose on camera,” but for now, he’s stuck at 4,000 followers on TikTok.

@TurdMemes

While the masses have gravitated toward more conventionally minded accounts like @PoopJokes, serious observers have long suspected that @TurdMemes was operating on a different plane entirely. Where @PoopJokes gives the people what they want, @TurdMemes has consistently challenged its audience — asking not merely that they laugh at poop, but that they feel something about it. Art historians may one day look back on this Instagram account the way we view Georges Seurat: a virtuoso artist working at the edge of what the form could do, misunderstood in his time, vindicated by posterity.

xFoxyStacyx

This X-rated digital cartoon of a Japanese girl with fox ears has a rich interior life, a fully realized mythology, and a sprawling universe of fetish content that should, by any artistic measure, be making people extremely horny. And yet xFoxyStacyx has never even cracked the top 100 creators on OnlyFans. Whether this reflects the culture’s failure to appreciate genius happening before their eyes, or whether it’s because the whole thing is run by a guy named Jeff between shifts at the California Pizza Kitchen, remains an open question.

@PuppySLOP

The creator behind PuppySLOP was just beginning to find her distinctive artistic voice: vaguely mutated puppies rendered with eerie realism by Artificial Intelligence, accompanied by copyright-free music. She was accumulating followers at a pace that suggested something was clicking, when suddenly OpenAI shut down the Sora video generation platform and ended it all. Her account went dark overnight. It was, by any honest assessment, the greatest single act of artistic devastation since the collapse of Vine. How can an artist thrive if their very medium goes extinct?

(@PuppySLOP can still be found on YouTube and has just received a $100 million investment from Disney.)

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