Dead Artists Are Better - Television Tropes & Idioms

...not quite what we meant.

The overwhelming prerequisite for the greatness of an artist is that artist's death.

—Thiessen's Law of Art

We all know dead rappers get better promotion.

—Jadakiss

The vast majority of shows that mention painting mention this trope at one point: Artists are never recognized until after they're dead. Though this has happened in a great majority of cases, there have also been been a great deal of painters, modern and classic, that have been recognized while still alive. Nor has the deceased been recognized immediately after his corpse hits the ground, as it seems to happen when this trope is in effect.

In 99% of the cases where this trope is mentioned, one character, either the artist or an associate, will come up with the "brilliant" idea of spreading rumors of the artist's death, which immediately causes said artist's work to magically get the recognition that eluded it all these years. Of course, something inevitably goes wrong, the artist is found to be alive, and the status quo is restored. For some reason, fraud accusations are seldom made.

Examples

Anime and Manga

The plot device with a faked death skyrocketing popularity and recognition is used in Galaxy Angel almost perfectly, although with a military officer instead of an artist.
- A similar thing happens in Cannon God Exaxxion, though in this case the people playing up the war hero's death actually believed he was dead at first. When it turns out he wasn't, rather than admitting their mistake, they decide to make it come true.
In the Mega Man Star Force ability, Hyde is under the impression that people will not love his grim, macabre works of art until after he dies. This is a motive for his villainy in the first place, as he tries to find Mu to become immortal so that he may live to see people appreciate him. When this doesn't seem to be working out, he starts an art class for children to get them to appreciate the art when they grow older, but they all ignore him and simply come for the free food.

Film

The movie Pauly Shore Is Dead shamelessly parodies this trope.
This trope is the subject of the song performed in the opening sequence of Phantom Of The Paradise.
Arguably, Heath Ledger. He did a few good films like A Knight's Tale, but in death earned himself an Oscar for his performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

Literature

In the Discworld novel Soul Music, Music With Rocks In requires the early death of its first host (the singer Buddy) in order to spread further. See above.
In one of Mark Twain's short stories, two starving artists manufacture a great deal of art... and then manufacture a story about how the artist who painted these things is fatally ill. Naturally, the artist in question eventually "dies", and his paintings become valuable overnight. Note that said dead artist is Francois Millet. Thus this is Older Than Radio.
Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers is a murder mystery in which the victim and the prime suspect are both authors. The trial from the publicity substantially helps both their sales; the detective discusses this as a possible motive for the murder, but doesn't pursue it because he's in love with the suspect and trying to clear her. As it turns out, she's innocent, and his murder had nothing to do with him being an author.
In Margaret Atwood's "Resources of the Ikarians," the inhabitants of a barren island devoid of sources of income start cultivating dead artists.

Live Action TV

Because one of the main characters of Caroline In The City is a struggling artist, this trope was inevitable. Complications arise when a prominent critic demands to go to the funeral. Hilarity Ensues...
In Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Salem sells Hilda's paintings after publishing her obituary. She is naturally upset, and proceeds to tell her boyfriend a mistake was made... not knowing that Zelda, going along with the scam for whatever reason had given him magically summoned photos of Hilda in a coffin. Naturally, he fled in terror.
In Seinfeld, George buys the art of an artist he expects to die and then gets angry when the artist ends up recovering.
- Especially since George buying the art was what gave said artist the will to keep living, helping him recover.
Also happens in the TV series Lush Life, which main character in an artist.
On My Two Dads, Joey decides to take advantage of an erroneous report of his death to mass-produce a bunch of paintings and sell them at huge mark-ups.
On The Golden Girls, the girls hear that a famous artist is near death, so they buy one of his paintings to make a quick buck. Then Sophia ends up saving the guy's life with a blood transfusion.
In the Bones episode "The Skull in the Sculpture" the murderer turned out to be banking on this trope.
On The Muppet Show, Gonzo once gave Kris Kristoffersson and Rita Coolidge his autograph under the assumption that it would be believed that his last act had rendered him dead.
On Taxi, the Sunshine Cab Company employees bid on a painting by an artist Elaine knows is at death's door. He's announced dead right after the painting is sold to someone else, causing a priceless breakdown from Louie.

Theatre

Timberlake Wertenbaker's play Three Birds Alighting on a Field invokes this trope repeatedly. One scene has an art dealer discussing the disappointing sales of a particular painter. The artist had died young, which the dealer mentions as a "good thing, from a marketing point of view".

Video Games

The price of a painting in The Sims skyrockets after the sim who painted it dies.
This forms part of the plot of the Visual Novel Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for the Nintendo DS.

Web Comics

Subverted in Sluggy Freelance where Torg's attempts to get his dead friend Bert's painting into a gallery are wildly unsuccessful.
In one Dork Tower strip describing conventions John Kovalic (the author) is seen disturbed as a fan who he just drew a picture of comments how it would be worth a fortune, if he died on the way home.

Western Animation

A Pinky And The Brain episode had Pinky become a hugely successful artist named "Pinkasso", with Brain collecting the money made from his paintings to fund his latest scheme. Naturally, Brain makes "Pinkasso's" popularity skyrocket by announcing his death, but it backfires when Pinky stupidly walks into the auction of the "deceased" artist's work.
Lampshaded in The Simpsons: Lisa is outraged that a record of her deceased idol, Bleeding Gums Murphy, costs $250. When Comic Book Guy learns the fact, he immediately doubles the price to $500.
Noted in Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo, where the Count notes that the modern school of artists has one major failing - "They have not had enough time to become Old Masters".
Dino Spumoni tried to increase his popularity again by faking his death. His plan backfired by an imitator taking over.
Parodied in American Dad when is was shown that Stan had a collection of Tara Reid commemorative plates. He says it will be worth a lot once she dies.

Other

This shirt explains it rather bluntly.

Real Life

This assumption is actually justifiable as it allows the customer review of several generations, each with their own outlook on life to decide on such things.
- For example Pearl Jam outsold Nirvana by far until Kurt died.
Kurt Cobain was valued before he died, but Nirvana probably wouldn't have sold 50 million albums without the dramatic suicide. (Or was it Courtney-planned murder????)
Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime and it was to his brother.
Tupac Shakur (...or IS he?).
- He is.
- On that note, the Notorious B.I.G. has been hailed by many as the greatest rapper of all time...after he died. With only two albums completed in his lifetime, to boot.
  - You're Nobody... Till Somebody... Kills You...
- Rap music in general is fascinated with this trope more than other genres. This editor had never even heard of Big L (not to be confused with the above, or Big Punisher) until after his murder, at which point he was hyped like crazy.
HP Lovecraft.
Austrian singer Falco ("Rock me Amadeus") supposedly said: "You've got to die in Vienna that the people will appreciate you."
It's hard to say if the Broadway musical RENT would have been the long-running smash it is if its author, Jonathon Larson, hadn't died shortly before its debut, but it certainly added to the show's legacy. (However, unlike Angel, he didn't die of AIDS.)
The world will never know what reception The Dark Knight would have gotten on its own merit because the hype was warped through the buzz of Heath Ledger's death. It became the second-highest grossing film of all time in America (not adjusted for inflation), and the fourth to surpass $1 billion worldwide. Ledger's very final movie, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, will probably do fairly well also once it's out of post-production.
- To be fair, Ledger's performance was getting tons of buzz before he died, and a lot of the hype once the movie came out was of the "look at this fantastic performer we'll never get to see again" variety. Though, how good his performance was may be warped as well...
  - How else could the kid from Ten Things I Hate About You win an Oscar for playing a comic book villain?
  - The Dead Artists Are Better Effect helped the movie to overcome Sci Fi Ghetto.
John Lennon didn't really become Holy St. John of Peace and Wonderfulness until after his tragic assassination. His album Double Fantasy probably wouldn't have sold so much or been nominated for a Grammy if it wasn't for his death. Woe be to the Beatles fan who tries to point this out to a hardcore Lennonhead, however.
- Paul McCartney tends to be the subject of more critical and popular derision these days (and the fact that unlike Lennon he also usually tends to spurn True Art Is Angsty doesn't help), but it is likely that after his death he will make like Michael Jackson.
- While not as deified as John, George Harrison has also been a beneficiary of this effect since his death in 2001. Suddenly people remembered why songs like "My Sweet Lord" and "Crackerbox Palace" had been so popular in their day. Additionally George had been an object of frequent derision for his unabashedly religious music and for the red tape issues surrounding the Concert for Bangladesh. After his death, his spirituality became a point of respect, and he was hailed as being compassionate enough to "invent" the benefit concert. (Incidentally his death made front page news in Bangladesh itself.)
Brandon Lee's final movie, The Crow, received a huge boosts due to his death, and has become a cult classic.
Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Some of the praise runs along the lines of 'Well it's depressing but at least he meant it'. The rest of Joy Division became New Order and put out many more albums and hit singles but tend to be overshadowed by Curtis' suicide. 24 Hour Party People focuses on Joy Division and moves on to the Happy Mondays with New Order appearing in the background. Anton Corbijn's Control covers Curtis's life and finishes with his death, with no mention of what the other three did. Grant Gee's Joy Division documentary contains barely a mention of anything past 1980.
Brad Nowell and Sublime. As one reviewer put it; '(Death) gives the record a certain pathos, but that doesn't make the album any stronger'.
The most revered racing drivers are usually the ones who died tragically; Dale Earnhardt, Ayrton Senna, Gilles Villeneuve, Greg Moore, Henri Toivonen etc. Senna and Earnhardt shift more merchandise now than when they were racing.
After Queen fell from popularity in the USA in the 'eighties, Freddie Mercury told Brian May: 'Guess I'll have to fucking die before we're big there again.' Spot on.
Cliff Burton (the dead bassist of Metallica) has achieved legendary status within the heavy metal world. Probably because back in 1986 he died when the tour bus slid on black ice, flipped over, and crushed him. The fact that when they were lifting the tour bus up with a crane after the accident, and accidentally dropped it back onto him did not help.
- The kicker is the band drew cards for that bed. Guess which card Cliff drew?
- Hohoho! The Ace of Spades. Creepy stuff. :)
- The band relocated to San Francisco because he'd join them on that condition. He was that good.
A more extreme example is John Kennedy Toole's Pulitizer Prize-winning novel A Confederancy of Dunces, which was only published eleven years after Toole committed suicide.
When Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead passed away, not only was there increased demand for the albums, but also for his line of mens ties and even Ben & Jerry's "Cherry Garcia" ice cream, which had existed since the mid 80's and went from being one of its better selling flavors to the brand's biggest selling flavor of all time.
"It's funny how most people love the dead. Once you're dead, you're made for life." - Jimi Hendrix
John Keats wasn't appreciated for his poetry until after he died.
- After his death literati everywhere said he would've surpassed Shakespeare if he had lived longer.
- To be fair, he died when he was 26 and only really started producing when it was clear he was dying. Take that into account when you read what he did manage to get down and it's not all that difficult to see where they're coming from...
Not exactly an artist, but in terms of creating a lasting, positive legacy, Abraham Lincoln could not have timed his death better if he had hired the assassin himself.
Mayhem have had countless singers throughout their history. One of them, Dead (real name Per Yngve Ohlin), in addition to being pretty unhinged in life (starving himself to "improve" his voice, burying his clothes in the ground and wearing them onstage while cutting himself) ultimately blew his head off with a shotgun while leaving a note that only said "Pardon the mess." The guitarist, Euronymous, then took a picture of his body before calling the police, the picture of which appeared on one of their album covers. He then, according to legend, made a stew out of his pieces of his brain and ate it (which Euronymous confirmed as false, though he apparently thought about it,) and collected fragments of his skull and made necklaces out of them (Euronymous confirmed this one as true.) Now, guess which of their many singers was traditionally called the best?
- Second Mayhem example: original guitarist and songwriter Euronymous was murdered shortly after recording of the band's proper debut album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, was completed. This album has effectively become the yardstick against which all subsequent Mayhem albums have and must be measured.
  - His murderer, Varg Vikernes, was playing bass on that album. Varg's releases as Burzum later became entry-level black metal music for unrelated reasons.
Jade Goody: in life, a well-documented idiot, racist and bully. Upon her death, she suddenly became the 21st Century answer to Princess Diana.
For that matter, Princess Diana herself is an example of Dead Royals Are Better; while always fairly popular during her life, her conduct wasn't entirely without criticism until her death, which pretty much elevated her to the position of unassailable and untouchable saint who did no wrong ever.
This would be a possible reason why people look on Ed Wood of all people more kindly compared to, say, Uwe Boll.
- More likely due to the fact that Wood was, by all reports, a much more pleasant and less overtly cynical person than renown Jerkass Boll.
Michael Jackson. Granted, the man sold over 270 million albums whilst he was still alive; but he also spent pretty much the last two decades as a punchline, near-universally considered a walking train wreck and a freak suffering from an extreme case of Small Name Big Ego at best (and that's not even getting into the accusations of child molestation). After his death, not only did the media tributes focus almost entirely on his Glory Days in The Eighties, but the sheer volume and tone of the seemingly never-ending tributes — still ongoing in places months after he died, and not even counting the This Is It film — would have you believe that the world's most beloved saint had just passed away.
- If Jackson's death causing MTV to actually play music videos again isn't a testament to this trope, then nothing is.
- The American Music Awards nominated him for five awards; he won four and only lost Artist of the Year (to Taylor Swift). The album that he won posthumous awards for was Number Ones, which became one of the biggest selling album of 2009 after his death, and was thus eligible via the AMA's system, but was also 1) a Greatest Hits Album and 2) released in 2003. He hadn't released an album of all-new material since 2001, and only a few new songs arrived in the years prior to his death.
Australian youth radio station Triple J's Hottest 100 Of All Time 2009 recently confirmed that Dead Artists Are Better, with 4 of the artists in the top 10 (Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley, Ian Curtis and Freddie Mercury) dying young.
- Young is not how I'd describe Freddie Mercury, I mean, he wasn't old, but 45 is a decent age.
Franz Kafka was little-known in the literary circle until he died and his friend Max Brod edited and published his unfinished manuscripts. Max also invokes the reversal of this trope, as he was a very popular and acclaimed author back then, but is now known only as Kafka's friend.
Sylvia Plath, non-stop. When she was alive, she struggled to gain recognition at all for her poetry. After her death? For Christ's sake, she was the first poet to posthumously win the Pulitzer Prize, is now regarded as one of the key figures in confessional poetry, and Joyce Carol Oates hailed the publication of Plath's unabridged journals as a "genuine literary event."
Although he's still not confirmed dead, Richey James Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers mysteriously disappeared in 1995. The band have had much more commercial success since then. Of course, this could be because without his unique vision they've produced several more pop-friendly albums.
- Richey's officially presumed dead since 2008. Of course, a new album using lyrics left by him came out the following year.
Sid Vicious didn't play on any of The Sex Pistols albums, didn't write anything and his amps were turned off live (the man couldn't even play). Still he's the most famous member of the band because he died at 21.
Chris Benoit is an aversion to this trope. As when word broke out of what REALLY happened to himself and his family, much of the Internet Wrestling Community turned on him instantly, the same IWC that once worshipped him as their god.
Brilliant as he was, Bill Hicks wasn't truly recognized until his death.
Same goes for subversive '60s comedian Lenny Bruce.
Bill Drummond of KLF fame wrote a song that appeared on his solo album "the Man" dealing with just this, the title: Julian Cope Is Dead. During the song he shoots Julian Cope to make his band The Teardrop Explodes famous. Bill used to be the manager of the band and his frustration with the music industry is quite well known.
Brittany Murphy; holy God, Brittany Murphy. I wasn't even aware that people gave two shits about her until she died; then article after article appeared about how she was this great actress with such range.