Beeple AI Art Sparks Controversy At Wisconsin Museum

(MENAFN- USA Art News) An upcoming Beeple artwork at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) in Wisconsin has drawn criticism from local residents and artists due to its use of AI. The piece, titled Diffuse Control (2025), is scheduled for exhibition next month.

An open letter, published in late August, contests the ethics of allowing Beeple to utilize images from the museum's collection without explicit permission from many artists or their representatives. The letter, which has garnered over 600 signatures, many from locals, states that visitors will be able to purchase AI-generated images created by the work.

The letter asserts that“Diffuse Control is completely devoid of any critical engagement, incapable of human understanding, and the only intent keeping it upright is Beeple's intent to sell you an AI generated print for $75 before you walk out of the building.”

Diffuse Control is a tiered structure with screens displaying digital orbs. It was previously shown at the Shed in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in 2025. During its presentation at LACMA, the museum allowed Beeple to access“a rotating selection of artworks from LACMA's permanent collection,” according to a release. This included a painting by Paul Gauguin and 16th-century Turkish tiles. Neither institution released a comprehensive list of the artworks used by Diffuse Control.

The concept of Diffuse Control draws parallels to Refik Anadol's Unsupervised (2022), which utilized AI to reinterpret works from the Museum of Modern Art's collection. Art critics largely condemned Anadol's work for aesthetic reasons rather than ethical concerns, with Ben Davis and Jerry Saltz comparing it to a lava lamp.

For the Wisconsin exhibition, MMoCA has confirmed that Beeple's piece will incorporate works by artists such as Francisco Goya, Rosa Bonheur, James McNeill Whistler, Gertrude Abercrombie, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Barbara Rossi. Many of these artists predated the 20th century, and a significant portion of their work is in the public domain. However, some artists listed were active more recently, creating pieces typically protected by copyright law.

The letter argues,“By volunteering work from their collection without the artist's consent MMoCA has overridden these artist's agency and compromised their legacies. These artists have had their work transformed into consumerist spectacle with the intention of selling prints and boosting Beeple's prestige. Art institutions must not input art from their collection into AI models without permission from the original artist.”

In a release for the Wisconsin presentation, MMoCA director Paul Baker Prindle contextualized Diffuse Control within a lineage that includes artists like Vera Molnár and Harold Cohen, who employed algorithms in their drawing processes. The letter dismisses this statement as“a deflection, not an answer to the commonly expressed ethical concerns surrounding generative AI usage in art.”

The letter demands that MMoCA publish a complete list of artworks used for the Beeple piece, concluding,“If a work can't show its receipts, MMoCA shouldn't show the work.” A museum spokesperson did not respond to ARTnews's request for comment.

The anonymous authors of the letter clarified that their intent is not“to fearmonger over computers in art, or to say that digital art is inherently wrong.” Nevertheless, several signatories characterized Diffuse Control as“anti-art” in their accompanying comments.

Beeple, a Wisconsin-born artist who rose to prominence after an NFT sold for $69 million, did not respond to a request for comment. However, he appeared to address the controversy on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday night, writing,“'that's not art' has never aged well.”

Source: ARTnews

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