History Main / AccidentalArt

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Squidward goes on a rampage, destroying his art studio. It turns out that in this rampage he created a replica of Michelangelo's ''Art/{{David}}'', the same statue Spongebob had created earlier in the episode.

* MarcelDuchamp was never satisfied with his Large Glass until it was accidentally broken on the way to an exhibition.
* In ''Don't Try This At Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World's Greatest Chefs'', Michelle Bernstein tells of accidentally dropping a terrine (i.e., pretentious meatloaf) in a bowl of chocolate sauce. The resulting mess was delicious, and she went on to use the same combination intentionally.

** As well as Gun Powder...
*** Gunpowder was first discovered by a Taoist Philosopher/chemist searching for the formula for immortality... Irony much?

** "Blue Monday" by Music/NewOrder begins with a distinctive semiquaver kick drum intro, programmed on an Oberheim DMX drum machine.[11] Gillian Gilbert eventually fades in a sequencer melody. According to band interviews in NewOrderStory, she did so at the wrong time, so the melody is out of sync with the beat; however, the band considered it to be a happy accident that contributed to the track's charm.

** The iconic theme to Film/TheTerminator has a very strange time signature that [[http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/03/02/30-years-later-people-are-still-trying-to-figure-out-the-time-signature-of-the-terminator-theme/ continues to fox listeners]] - apparently due to the artist not quite timing the loop properly, but having the effect of giving the song a strange, inhuman lurch that fits the theme perfectly.

* One of the live-action bookends of ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrothersSuperShow'' had Vincent van Gogh declare Mario's dropped plate of spaghetti as "pure genius!" and then promises Mario a lucrative career as an artist. Luigi eventually discovers that the guy is a scam artist posing as van Gogh, though they really should have been [[DeaderThanDead tipped off that he was a fake much earlier on]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}:'' The back of his real painting was marked up by his dog Porkchop chasing a raccoon through his paints and then over the canvas. Initially people think it's abstract; matters aren't helped when he attempts to explain and they assume "Porkchop" is the name of the painting.

* One ''ComicBook/{{Archie}}'' story has Archie's pants run over by a bunch of cars on the way to a party at Veronica's place (long story). All the rich nobbies there adore the fashion statement. Cut to a week later when everyone's having their trousers roadkilled.

** Another episode mixes this with EurekaMoment. A cartoon version of RealLife architect Frank Gehry casually crumples up a letter and throws it onto the ground, gives it a look, and says to himself “[[http://travel.spotcoolstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/simpsons-gehry.jpg Frank, you genius! You did it again!]]” He then scales up this "design" and makes it a concert hall. [[http://blog.miragestudio7.com/frank-gehry-and-the-simpsons/113/]]

* Creator/HunterSThompson accidentally created GonzoJournalism. Thompson was a RidiculousProcrastinator who was [[ChristmasRushed up against his deadline]] and, lacking anything to submit for his story on the Kentucky Derby other than his bare-bones notes on the event, simply started ripping pages out of his notebook and sending them in. The magazine published his first-person notes from the Derby as-is, and thus Gonzo Journalism was born.

** Another had the pile of junk resultant from Verinica's spring cleaning ending up in an art gallery.

* In a ''Webcomic/CheckerboardNightmare'' strip, Chex decides he needs a theme song, so he kidnaps ElectricLightOrchestra's Jeff Lynne to force him to write said theme. Jeff Lynne escapes, but leaves behind a letter denouncing Chex as a "sick bastard". Chex reads the letter and thinks it's the song he asked for.

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'', Dean's hobby is constructing art sculptures from junk in his own scrapyard. At one point, he yells at the eponymous giant who has been indiscriminately eating the junk and happened to swallow some of the art pieces. At this the giant pulls a half-eaten sculpture from his mouth, adjusts a few parts, and then sets it down. Even though the giant only understands art as "what Dean doesn't want to be eaten", Dean decides that the result is as impressive as the other artistic displays, and in a later scene he is directing the giant in the construction of larger sculptures.
* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventuresHowISpentMyVacation'' has Dizzy Devil upset because he is shedding, which means his hair will come out if he spins. Shirley trolls him by convincing him to do it anyway, and he winds up "[[FurryBaldness naked]]". He dons a box to cover himself, and some passing skaters mistake it for a fashion statement, get their own boxes, and declare "The Box Look is in!"

* In ''{{Tapeheads}}'', the main characters run an unsuccessful music video company. When a DeathMetal band that they taped [[DeathFromAbove is crushed by a piece of falling satellite]], they're asked for a copy of the unpremiered video. Being low on funds, they put it on a video that previously held a videotaped funeral, accidentally copying only the audio. Fortunately, the song just happened to fit the funeral visuals very well, and it is lauded as a masterful work of art, even winning an award.

* In a ''Franchise/DisneyFairies'' book, Bess, an art talent fairy feels that her latest painting is missing something. Apparently that something was a whole mess of paint splattered on it by a passing frog.

* ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'' mentions a piece of modern art consisting of a pile of rags called "Don't Ask Me About Mondays". This art was intentional, but when Lord Vetinari viewed it, he displayed his opinions on modern art by having the artist nailed to a post by her ear. This installation (titled "Freedom") was an even bigger hit, and it's said she's planning on having herself nailed to several other things.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'', Cosmo notices the paint splatters Beetle has left on the floor look kind of interesting, and the sawed-off piece of floor ends up winning a prize as a painting. (Thankfully, this isn't the punchline, which instead involves Sarge falling down the hole.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

-->'''Art Dealer:''' It's called "Outsider Art". It could be by a hillbilly, a mental patient, or a chimpanzee.
-->'''Homer:''' Wow... in high school I was voted most likely to ''be'' a hillbilly, mental patient or chimpanzee!

* ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' had photos rendered incomprehensible through a darkroom accident win a contest.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'':

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Squidward goes on a rampage, destroying his art studio. It turns out that in this rampage he created a replica of Michelangelo's ''David'', the same statue Spongebob had created earlier in the episode.

* HunterSThompson accidentally created GonzoJournalism. Thompson was a RidiculousProcrastinator who was [[ChristmasRushed up against his deadline]] and, lacking anything to submit for his story on the Kentucky Derby other than his bare-bones notes on the event, simply started ripping pages out of his notebook and sending them in. The magazine published his first-person notes from the Derby as-is, and thus Gonzo Journalism was born.

** Chocolate chip cookies, the most popular variety of cookie in the world, were supposedly created by accident. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Graves_Wakefield Ruth Graves Wakefield]], owner and cook of the Toll House Inn, was attempting to make a batch of chocolate cookies for her guests when she discovered she was short on baker's chocolate. She decided to substitute it with chunks of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate, thinking the chocolate would melt and absorb into the dough. They didn't, but she served them anyway, and they became wildly popular. So popular in fact that she signed a deal with Nestle to print her recipe on every pack of their semi-sweet chocolate bars, in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_art Found art]]. True found art is the deliberate designation of a non art object as art by an artist (sometimes with alteration but this is not necessary), but this trend in art is the inspiration for many examples of this trope in fiction and has increased the likelihood of real life occurrences.

* A rather amusing one from the 19th century was the case of Emmanuel Domenech and the 'pictographs' he had found in the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal. He thought he'd found native American artwork showing various things from their culture/history, but had actually discovered the misfiled notebook doodlings of a German school kid, complete with crude drawings of school life and sexual themes. It was also potentially an example of MistakenForExhibit, since the library itself someone thought this random set of drawings was an historic cultural piece and filed it away in the archives. You can see the full story [[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_pictographs_of_emmanuel_domenech in this Museum of Hoaxes article]].

* In 2012, an old Spanish woman without training was trying to restore a 19th century fresco at a local church and accidentally made a portrait of Jesus look like a smiling monkey. It seemed like a case of [[PricelessMingVase accidental destruction of valuable art]], but instead, it drew worldwide interest to the church and the painting that made it [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/08/14/ecce_mono_cecilia_gimenez_s_botched_fresco_restoration_turns_into_a_money.html far more famous and recognizable than the original]], which was not considered especially extraordinary.

* In one of the novels of the ''Literature/ChanurSaga'' the main characters must carry an important ''stsho'' dignitary on their starship as a passenger. Knowing that the stsho love the color white they get their hands on whatever white furniture and decorations they can and hastily shove them into the stsho's room. It turns out that stsho art consists of abstract designs in infinite shades of white, and they'd created for their passenger a masterpiece of stsho interior design.

* ''[[Creator/RogerCorman A Bucket of Blood]]:'' The main character accidentally kills his landlady's pet and covers it in plaster to hide the evidence. His 'sculpture' is hailed as a masterpiece.

* In ''[[{{Literature/Fudge}} Fudge-A-Mania]]'' by JudyBlume, baby Tootsie accidentally walks through spilled paint and makes little footprints across one of Jimmy's father's canvases. He decides to make a series of "Baby Feet" paintings with her as a result. It's even referenced in ''Double Fudge,'' where Peter's family gets invited to a showing of Mr. Fargo's work, including the now wildly popular Baby Feet paintings.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' story "Powerpuff Picasso" (issue #15), the picture Bubbles drew at school is noticed and hailed by an art critic and put on exhibit at the museum. At the end, after numerous attempts to do so, Bubbles explains to everyone that the picture was upside down. Upon turning it right way up, the picture is passed off as bland and uninteresting.

* In ''ThePowerpuffGirls'' story "Powerpuff Picasso" (issue #15), the picture Bubbles drew at school is noticed and hailed by an art critic and put on exhibit at the museum. At the end, after numerous attempts to do so, Bubbles explains to everyone that the picture was upside down. Upon turning it right way up, the picture is passed off as bland and uninteresting.

*** Gunpowder was first discovered by a Taoist Philosopher/chemist searching for the formula for immortality...Irony much?
** Chocolate chip cookies, the most popular variety of cookie in the world, were supposedly created by accident. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Graves_Wakefield Ruth Graves Wakefield]], owner and cook of the Toll House Inn, was attempting to make a batch of chocolate cookies for her guests when she discovered she was short on baker's chocolate. She decided to substitute it with chunks of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate, thinking the chocolate would melt and absorb into the dough. They didn't, but she served them anyway, and they became wildly popular. So popular in fact that she signed a deal with Nestle to print her recipe on every pack of their semi-sweet chocolate bars, in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.

** In France and Germany, municipal garbage workers had to specially trained to distinguish between found art installations and piles of garbage.

* A quest in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' has you commissioning, on behalf of one of the temples, a sculpture from a haughty artist. If you do the quest right, you'll end up pissing off the artist and have a heavy lump of useless Illithium ore on you hands. But never mind: the temple still accepts that shapeless ore as a great work of art. In fact, the senior priest will regard it as far more symbolic and meaningful than anything the haughty artist could have produced.

* A quest in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' has you commissioning, on behalf of one of the temples, a sculpture from a haughty artist. If you do the quest right, you'll end up pissing off the artist and has a heavy lump of useless Illithium ore on you hands. But never mind: the temple still accepts that shapeless ore as a great work of art. In fact, the senior priest will regard it as far more symbolic and meaningful than anything the haughty artist could have produced.