Hunter Biden unveiled his latest paintings as part of a group exhibit that opened at a New York City gallery Thursday evening amid an ongoing probe into his business dealings.
The president’s son debuted his newest work in the exhibit titled “Bridging the Abstract” alongside paintings by renowned artists like the late Elaine de Kooning and Helen Frankenthaler at the Georges Bergès Gallery in Soho.
Biden, 53, displayed three pieces — priced at $85,000 a pop — in the group show which features work by both emerging artists and historical icons of the abstract art movement, according to gallery owner Georges Bergès.
“I was thinking of this show as new and abstract artists,” Bergès told The Post at the opening. “And I saw a lot of aspects of [Biden’s] work from a historical sense and it fit really nicely into the exhibition.”
The scandal-ridden first-son-turned-artist was not at the gallery opening, as he faces an ongoing investigation by the Republican-controlled House Committee over his family’s international business dealings for alleged tax fraud, money laundering and violation of lobby laws.
The opening night drew about 50 art appreciators and critics.
Hunter Biden unveiled his latest paintings as part of a group exhibit that opened at a New York City gallery Thursday evening. The first son was not in attendance.AFP via Getty Images
Biden’s three paintings submitted to the “Bridging the Abstract” show feature bold colors and geometric shapes.Daniel William McKnight
Gallery owner Georges Bergès said Biden’s fame actually hurts him.Daniel William McKnight
Biden’s three paintings submitted to the “Bridging the Abstract” show feature bold colors and geometric shapes — an apparent departure from the painterly and organic pieces he debuted at his solo show “Haiku” in December.
Opening night attendee Sioan Bethel, 69, called the pieces “interesting.”
“They have that Washington, DC seals. It’s got that in there,” he said, referring to the design on one of the paintings. “Not bad.”
A 25-year-old art student named Rachel said the paintings were “easy on the eyes.”
“I also love that every piece is different,” she said of the three canvases. “You have a broad spectrum in style of his paintings and it speaks highly of him.”
However, another gallery-goer didn’t cut words when bashing two of Biden’s new paintings.
“I think it’s terrible — the two on the right as you walk in, but I’m not an artist,” said the man who didn’t want to give his name.
Bergès, however, said the work is getting positive attention by industry bigs.
“A lot of people are interested in his artwork,” he said. “The very serious people in the art world are taking note of his work.”
The House Committee is also taking note.
Hunter Biden’s art received praise and criticism from some in the Thursday evening crowd.Daniel William McKnight
The crowd at Georges Bergès Gallery in Soho on Thursday evening.
Congress members leading the probe have demanded the gallery owner release the names of the buyers of Biden’s past paintings — which have been valued up to $500,000. They fear the anonymity granted to the art buyers could cause a conflict for the Biden administration with people hoping to buy the president’s favor.
The White House has previously said it has established measures to prevent any ethical concerns over the first-son’s art dealings and presidential influence.
Bergès would not divulge any of Biden’s past buyers during the Thursday opening.
He said since working with the younger Biden, he’s become a close friend and even attended Naomi Biden’s White House wedding in November.
He said working with the controversial first son has also landed him death threats, but he believes Biden to be a budding and talented artist.
“The sad thing is that people think he’s using his name but it’s been an albatross around his neck because he needs to break out of that,” Bergès said. “It’s almost hurting him, it’s not helping him.”
The gallery owner instead labeled Biden as an underdog who overcame his drug addiction and coped with tragic deaths in his family.
“America has an issue with drug addiction and there’s a lot of people who look like him and get hope within themselves. You know he’s had a lot of tragedy in his life. He’s overcome a lot,” Bergès said. “To me that’s America: the idea that your past doesn’t have to define your future.”
He said Biden’s struggles have made him a better artist.
“He puts his whole life experience in his work… I think that’s why his story is important, and his art is important,” he said.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
