Joshua Sapan began collecting discarded art years ago. He has a large collection of photography and of paintings that are taking up an increasingly large storage area in space-challenged New York City.
The art showcased has been collected from places where it has been at risk of being thrown out (or treated as junk). It has been retrieved from art schools on the day after classes have ended, when students have taken what they like, and the school is putting the paintings in Hefty bags and leaving them out for the sanitation truck. It has been purchased at yard sales and junk stores where it is often piled up or buried under furniture. In all cases, this often wonderful creative work has been discarded.
This site hopes to give showcase to the work in a virtual museum, with no limit in its capability to exhibit, and with a mandate to capture the talent of these anonymous artists.
The art itself is being stored in New York City in a facility that will protect and preserve it while it is being seen on the site.
It seems that identifying great art and great artists is tricky business. It often is the case that great works of art done by great artists were discarded when they were early in their careers; when no one thought it worthy. This “preservation effort” and the existence of these saved works forever gives life to the art.