Poor Hunter Biden. His dad, who issued him an unconditional pardon as one of his last acts as US president, saved him from the justice system – but it’s quite apparent no one is coming to save his art career.
You may have had other things on your mind lately, so let me remind you about the trajectory of one of the US’s most controversial artists. Just a few years ago, Joe Biden’s troubled son, who had previously earned megabucks sitting on various boards doing mysterious board things, was enjoying remarkable success as an “emerging” artist. His paintings were being exhibited in a fancy New York gallery and selling for large sums. Kevin Morris, a Hollywood lawyer and friend of Biden, reportedly bought 11 works for a total of $875,000 (£690,000). Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Democratic donor, bought two paintings, for $42,000 and $52,000. All in all, Hunter sold art for about $1.5m between 2021 and 2024. Not too shabby for someone considered an amateur.
Now, however, Biden’s creative career appears to be cratering. In court filings last week, Hunter said he was seeking to dismiss a lawsuit concerning his abandoned laptop hard drive because he doesn’t have the money to continue litigation. “My income has decreased significantly,” read the documents. “In the 2 to 3 years prior to December 2023, I sold 27 pieces of art at an average price of $54,481.48, but since then I have only sold 1 piece of art for $36,000 … I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances, but that has not happened.”
Golly, I wonder why? Has the art market shifted, do you reckon? Or had his dad’s political power started to wane?
To be clear, I am not here to mock the fact no one is buying Biden’s terrible paintings (or reading his self-indulgent memoir, sales of which have plummeted) now that his dad isn’t president. That would be mean. I am here to say: cheer up, mate. There is a silver lining to almost everything and the good news is that Biden now has the opportunity to prove himself. His father spent nearly 50 years in political office and Biden has spent his entire life dogged by accusations of nepotism. Now that his dad is irrelevant, Biden has a chance to see if he can make it based on his talents alone.
No doubt every nepo baby out there is squirming with jealousy at Biden’s situation. With a handful of exceptions – including Maya Hawke, who has acknowledged her head start in life – famous spawn seem to bang on about how unfair it is that people assume they have been handed opportunities. Certain female celebrities, such as Lily Allen, have also declared bizarrely that the label nepo baby is sexist. This is truly delusional considering the fact that the nepo baby lament has become a gender-inclusive fixture of the news cycle: every couple of weeks, a new famous kid makes headlines for going: waaah waaah waaah, I’m terribly misunderstood.
Recently, for example, Patrick Schwarzenegger, 31, was lamenting the fact that people were saying he got his role in the third season of The White Lotus because of his dad. (I don’t need to tell you who his dad is.) “They’re not seeing that I’ve had 10 years of acting classes, put on school plays every week, worked on my characters for hours on end or the hundreds of rejected auditions I’ve been on,” Schwarzenegger complained to the Sunday Times.
Good job on all the school plays, my friend. However, the thing that Schwarzenegger isn’t seeing is that the reason people get so het up by nepo babies is that they are an obvious example of a greater rot in the system. Inequality has been rising for decades and social mobility has been declining. Even before Donald Trump made it clear that money was the only thing that mattered, it had become almost impossible for anyone “normal” to afford to break into a creative career. The system is rigged, and people are justifiably furious about it. I could go on and on, but they say a picture is worth a thousand words; maybe Biden can paint us a more poignant image of where things stand.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
-
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
