21st century aestheticism has taken on new meaning with more and more artists positioning themselves as explorers and hunter gatherers of materials to feed market thirst for sensation. From Damien Hirst’s pickled shark, to Marc Quinn’s coagulated blood, and then Piero Manzoni’s canned human waste, their morbid use became show stoppers. They delight as well as disgust as extreme examples of what could further be engaged and immortalised as art. This idiosyncratic path risks being generalised as the artists’ unconscionable response to the actual or imaginary criticism of their incapability of making conventional paintings.