Artist: The One Thing You Can Claim To Be and Nobody Can Prove You Ain’t

Will Rogers? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: The evaluation of art is subjective. The popular U.S. humorist Will Rogers once said something like:

You can call yourself an artist because nobody can prove you ain’t.

Would you please help me to find a citation?

Quote Investigator: In 1926 Will Rogers published “Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President” containing a collection of letters nominally addressed to U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. One letter discussed art. Rogers used the expression “Banana Oil”; the smoothness of this oil led to the metaphorical slang meaning of insincere nonsense. The term “maby” meant maybe. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1]1926, Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President by Will Rogers, Volume 1, Letter addressed to Calvin Coolidge, Date: June 5, 1926, Location: Rome, Italy, Start Page 157, Quote Page 162, Albert … Continue reading

We know about 9-10ths of the stuff going on under the guise of Art is the Banana Oil. They call it Art to get to take off the clothes. When you ain’t nothing else, you are an Artist. It’s the one thing you can claim to be and nobody can prove you ain’t.

No matter how you built anything and how you painted anything, if it accidentally through lack of wars or rain happened to live a few hundreds of years, why its Art now. Maby when the Guy painted it at the time he never got another contract.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In December 1926 “The Saturday Review of Literature” printed a short item excerpted from Rogers’ book. The second sentence was slightly garbled:^[2] 1926 December 11, The Saturday Review of Literature, Page Title: The Bowling Green, A Casual Anthology, Quote Page 421, Column 2, New York. (Google Books Full View) link

About 9-10ths of the stuff going on under the guise of Art is the Banana Oil. They call it art to get it off the clothes.
—Will Rogers, Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat

In 1927 “The Sioux City Sunday Journal” of Iowa also printed a item from Rogers’ book:^[3] 1927 January 2, The Sioux City Sunday Journal, Wot-Nots, Quote Page 22, Column 5, Sioux City, Iowa. (Newspapers_com)

The Aesthetic Mr. Rogers.—“About nine-tenths of the stuff going on under the guise of Art is the Banana Oil,” observes Will Rogers in “Letters of a Self Made Diplomat.”

In 1935 “The American Weekly” Sunday newspaper supplement published a page titled “Will Rogers’ Funniest Wise-Cracks” containing examples of his “shrewd philosophy and homely wit” including a reprint of the passage from 1926:^[4] 1935 September 8, The San Francisco Examiner, Section: The American Weekly, Will Rogers’ Funniest Wise-Cracks, Quote Page 5, Column 1, San Francisco, California. (Newspapers_com)

About nine-tenths of the stuff going on under the guise of Art is the Banana Oil. They call it Art to get to take off the clothes. When you ain’t nothing else you are an Artist. It’s the one thing you can claim to be and nobody can prove you ain’t.

In 1960 a newspaper in Casper, Wyoming printed a version of the quip without attribution:^[5] 1960 March 29, Casper Morning Star, Heard During the … Coffee Break, Quote Page 18, Column 5, Casper, Wyoming. (Newspapers_com)

With these new modernistic paintings you can claim you are an artist — and nobody can prove you’re not.

In 1982 “A Will Rogers Treasury: Reflections and Observations” compiled by Bryan B. Sterling and Frances N. Sterling included an instance with the word “bunk” instead of “Banana Oil”:^[6]1982, A Will Rogers Treasury: Reflections and Observations by Will Rogers, Compiled by Bryan B. Sterling and Frances N. Sterling, Section: 1926, Chapter: What to Look Out for—and at—in Italy, … Continue reading

You know, about 9-10th of the stuff going under the guise of art, is bunk. They call it art to get to take off the clothes. When you ain’t nothing else, you can claim to be an artist—and nobody can prove you ain’t.

In conclusion, Will Rogers deserves credit for the passage he published in 1926. The phrasing has been altered in some subsequent citations.

Image Notes: “Nocturne in Black and Gold” by James McNeill Whistler accessed via Wikimedia Commons; image has been cropped and resized.

(Great thanks to the anonymous artist whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.)