Things are getting saucy at a New Jersey pizza joint.
Brick & Dough, a pizzeria in Montclair, had a gorgeous photo-realistic mural of two faces painted over with pictures of . . . pizza.
The original artwork was titled “The Curse of Socrates” and was done by artist Jayemaich.
The painting, commissioned by Brick & Dough owner Jason Rosenthal in 2021, depicted two elderly women with notable wrinkles and longing faces.
“That wall was blank forever, so we really wanted to put something cool up,” Rosenthal told Today.com of the original mural. “We started talking, and I commissioned him to paint what was up there.”
Jayemaich previously told Montclair Local in 2021 that this work of art was inspired by Socrates’ philosophy of teaching morality, which ultimately led to his execution.
But the owner, while saying he “approved and still approves the message,” decided he wanted a change. He hired artist Jen Flaum to replace it with a new mural this month, of pizza and pizza slices.
Online critics were not impressed. Rosenthal has also said that since the new mural went up, people have been review-bombing the restaurant on Yelp and Google with one-star reviews mentioning it.
“I think that art is always subjective, but the people who seem to have loved it, they’re not seeing it all the time, and we were,” he said. “So for almost five years, we’re seeing it every day and I think that after a little while, we just wanted some change.”
The Post has reached out to Flaum and Brick & Dough for comment.
Many, however, disagree with Rosenthal’s take.
“The first one looked so clean with the building color though, and made it look fancy. The second one makes it look like a kids pizza place. It looks so derpy,” one critic noted.
“I literally gasped out loud, the original was so beautiful,” an exasperated viewer said.
Others defended Flaum, with one saying, “Big downgrade but not the artists fault she was hired to do HER art. it’s the owner of the restaurants fault for PAYING to have that masterpiece covered,” someone said.
And some pointed out that the new mural is more fitting.
“The new art makes the pizza place stand out as a pizza place. Judging by the fact they also changed the sign they probably had customers say they were confused or had no idea,” one assumed.
For her part, Flaum explained in an email to The Post, she didn’t know about the first mural and was doing what she was hired to do.
“I had never been to Brick & Dough until I was hired to paint the mural. When I arrived, the wall had already been painted over in light gray and I wasn’t involved in the decision to change the previous artwork.”
Flaum added that she “completely understand[s] why people feel upset” about the previous mural’s disappearance. “It was a meaningful and beautiful painting.”
Read the full article here
