In this essay we discuss the paintings produced by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, his morality presented in his work, and whether the aesthetic value of his work should be affected by its morality. In this essay, Gacy's work that will be particularly referenced is his paintings featuring Pogo the Clown, his child artist character. Also why do people buy his work and even commission Gacy to create work for them? Why do these collectors support a man with an incredibly dark past? Are they unaware of the morality associated with Gacy or is it due to his morality that they buy and collect his work? A brief overview of Gacy's background and the events leading up to his death sentence is explained to give context as to the type of person he was and how this is reflected in his work. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get the original essay Serial killer John Wayne Gacy or the 'Killer Clown' gained a cult following through the paintings he produced during his stay on death row from 1980 until 1994, when he was executed. He was convicted of murdering 33 boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. He buried his victims in the crawl space under his house after he finished torturing and sexually abusing them. What drove Gacy to become such a monstrous being? His childhood was regular, except for the relationship he had with his father John Wayne Gacy Sr. He was an alcoholic who beat and verbally abused his children. Despite this horrible treatment, Gacy still tried to gain his father's love, attention, and approval, but he was unable to do so due to his father's death in 1965 on Christmas Day. Gacy seemed affected by this upbringing, he would suffer from alienation at school due to a heart condition. Later in life, he moved to Chicago where he attended business school. There, Gacy learned that he was a born salesman, that with his silver tongue he could talk his way out of any situation. After working his way up to a management position, Gacy married into a wealthy family. His father-in-law offered him a management position in their family chicken restaurant business. He quickly became a lovable and well-known member of the community, he seemed like an average Joe until 1968. Gacy was first charged with a crime and was arrested for forcing one of his young employees to commit crimes. sexual acts. It was a shock to his family and his community, but especially to his wife and two children. Gacy pleaded guilty and his wife divorced him after his conviction. After Gacy served his sentence, he returned to Chicago in 1971 where he remarried a divorced woman and worked as a construction contractor. He was considered a savvy businessman because he cut costs by employing young high school students to work for him. He gained popularity in the community by throwing street parties and entertaining children from local hospitals dressed as his alter ego Pogo the Clown. In 1978, Gacy became a person of interest to local police due to the disappearance of a teenager and last seen with him. Police were shocked to find Gacy's prior conviction. Police then searched Gacy's house and found only a rancid smell which they ignored as a sewage leak. They then examined the evidence collected to discover that Gacy had a ring belonging to a boy who had been missing for a year already. The police returned to the houseGacy where he confessed and pointed out the location of all the graves of his victims scattered under his house that he had dug. Gacy later told police that there were four versions of himself: "John the Builder, John the Clown (Pogo the Clown), John the Politician and Jack Hanley." Gacy described “Jack Hanley” as the one who did bad things, he was a killer. In 1980, Gacy was tired and pleaded insanity during his trial, but this did not work in his favor, he was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death. He spent the last of his 14 years on death row. During his time on death row, Gacy created paintings that have a simple, childlike quality. He mainly painted his alter ego Pogo the Clown in which Gacy would give birth to this personality while he was a clown artist for children. He creates his oil paintings with the same ideology he had when entertaining children, which is "to bring joy to people's lives", which is quite scary to think that such an innocent phrase comes from an extremely dangerous killer who has a form of schizophrenia. Two businessmen, Wally Knoebel and Joe Roth, began buying Gacy's works in order to give them to the families of his victims, so they could burn them in an attempt to get revenge on the killer for the unimaginable suffering he suffered. he had endured. was caused to them. Gacy's work began to rise in price when the era of documentaries about serial killers and murders became popular among the public. This resulted in an increase in the collection of “muderbilia,” works created by dangerous criminals. As people become more familiar with the serial killer genre, they have lost the fear associated with owning a piece of muderbilia. The painting “Pogo the Clown” opened with a bid of $20,000, which has increased significantly since Gacy began selling his work at a starting price of $300. The fascination in Gacy's work comes from the darkness hidden in his clown paintings. He portrays his alter ego Pogo the Clown as a happy, pleasant clown who just wants to entertain and make children happy, but beneath this cheerful, brightly colored clown mask lies a dark, sadistic man who wants to turn his sexual fantasies into reality . This hidden darkness creates a fear factor that draws viewers to his work. In his paintings of Pogo the Clown, there are signs in which Gacy attempts to hide his true nature. Is he trying to escape his other ego “Jack Hanley”, the evil version of himself? Is Gacy trying to use Pogo the Clown to describe who he really wants to be, as a person who entertains and brings joy to people? In some paintings, he places Pogo in a natural scene with pine trees and a blue sky in the background, while his character is painted with unnatural colors such as blue, red, purple, etc. This combination of a vibrant clown in nature is a bit surreal and, in some ways, unsettling. He also tries to hide his deviant sexual side by depicting Pogo from the waist up. He uses a recurring pose in which his left hand is raised in a Christ-like pose, suggesting that he saw himself as a non-human seeking some form of recognition. This recognition could still be love or respect for his abusive father. Can Gacy's work have aesthetic values ​​that alone attract viewers or is it the morbid fascination, that fear factor behind the work that attracts viewers? Much of his work is simplistic and childish with heavy use of primary colors. His work shows a lack of formal training and, as a result,.