Louise Lawler’s Salon Hodler is proof that you could hang up any painting in a rich person’s ~salon~ and as long as it matches the rug, they won’t notice or care what its contents are.

That was kind of Lawler’s thing. She liked to point out the ridiculousness of a priceless work of art hanging in the third dining room of some fancy-ass chateau where no one even deigns to look at it, let alone talk about it. Poor works of art are neglected and mistreated. If only there was someplace where they could go where people would look after them and encourage other people to look at them and think about them. Somewhere with large white walls and overpriced gift shops where they sell replicas of the art in sock, mug, or decorative scarf form. If only…. *cue In the Arms of an Angel by Sarah McLachlan*

The final resting place of these paintings by Ferdinand Hodler, the famous Swiss artist, wasn’t an obvious choice. It seems a lot more like a place where ladies would play bridge and drink tea after steaming in the sauna rather than a place where an erotic piece of art would hang. Bridge and naked, floating people go together about as well as a fish and a bicycle. Unless the elite bridge clubs of America are a lot cooler than we think they are. You really never know what those rich folks get up to behind closed doors...