Artifact: Auto Exotica

Galleries may invite spiritual contemplation, but that often masks art's worldly meaning. This object started out as Time art critic Robert Hughes' rental car. The author of The Shock of the New and The Fatal Shore, Hughes' views of his native Australia have earned him a reputation there for pomposity. During a 1999 visit, Hughes was in a controversial crash; he's still sought for an inquiry.

Melbourne artist Danius Kesminas later bought the compacted car, festooned it with Hughes' work, titled it "Hughbris," and put it in a Perth show—Elvis Has Left the Building—about modern myths. Kesminas had used art to attack the art critic as a "self-mythologizer."

Remarkably, Hughes has legitimized the attack. He now claims that while recovering from his crash injuries, he hallucinated being tortured by Francisco Goya (1746-1828), famous for atrocity images. The real Hughes was struggling to write a book about Goya; the dream Goya was out to stop him.

There's more. Hughes has now published the book, arguing that Goya's claims to have witnessed the atrocities he depicted are lies. More revenge? Who knows? But now we have a two-century art narrative involving atrocity, torture, hallucinations, injury, anger, and revenge. Something to contemplate.