Art Official

"The General had the art world around the neck and was leading it from Billy Keening to Fletcher Flynn and Ray Lowenstein. I provided the prisoners. Everyone was fitted for their nooses."

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Arthur Oswald Fischel is the most important figure in American art you've never heard of. He's the man who discovered almost every consequential artist in the post-9/11 world. He claims to have invented the NFT. But unfortunately for Arthur, he's now rotting in Guantanamo Bay, accused of being part of an al-Qaeda terror plot. It all began the day a shadowy military figure he calls "The General" walked into his failing Manhattan gallery and started handing him sacks of cash to find and discover artists as part of a secret government program to rebuild America's image.

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Art Official is a sardonic and piercing examination of the hidden influence government exerts on contemporary culture. Rooted in American history and politics, Kurt Cole Eidsvig's work shines a humorous light on the nature of the modern art scene and how culture, even "subversive" culture, is often weaponized and subverted by those in power.

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"Art and intrigue commingle in a strange (and darkly comedic) tableau from author Kurt Cole Eidsvig. Art Official features a gonzo cast of characters, from a foul-smelling 'General' to a bumbling art teacher, all of whom form the nexus of an outlandish plot to save America with art following 9/11. Besides great characters and a mad plot, Art Official gets right the fact that modern art and espionage are familiar bedfellows, plus it serves as a reminder that art and culture have always been weapons of war." — Arbogast, author of The Shanghai Horror

 

Available from Terror House Press

Pages: 434
ISBN-13: 978-1-951897-81-9
$21.95 (paperback); $9.99 (ebook)

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