Mark Kostabi was arguably the most controversial painter of the 1980s. The controversy surrounding Kostabi differed from that other controversial 80s artist Robert Mapplethorpe in the fact that it was the content that drew ire, but the method.

Kostabi publicized the fact that most of his paintings were actually done by assistants, and that some of the ones sold for tons of money he had never even seen.

In 1988 he opened Kostabi’s World which hired not only painting assistants, but people to come up with the ideas for his artwork. In addition, Kostabi has been criticized for ripping off the surrealist legend Georgio de Chirico.