Art Official (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781951897819)

"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."

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.

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.