Back in 1999, four lanky young men went on bizarre road trip that culminated at the dingy Big Texan Steak Ranch, seated at a red checkered table on a stumpy wooden stage. The ridiculously large timer behind them was set and they dove in—attempting to choke down a 72 oz steak and fixings in 60 minutes. Three boys gave up but the fourth freakishly managed to get the job done. With just 5 minutes left on the clock he painfully swallowed the last forkful and claimed his trophies: a t-shirt and a gaudy plastic belt buckle. Then he vomited.

Enjoying Peter Saul’s art is like choking down a 72 oz steak. Consuming absurd amounts of meat is not normal. It’s not satisfying a hunger. And it’s unlikely that this meat-eating fellow enjoyed much, if any, of the meal. But the challenge was issued and the brave accepted. To own a Peter Saul painting is not to enjoy, but to defy.

Like champion steak-eating, most of mankind can happily exist without being exposed to Peter Saul’s work. The paintings are vulgar, the vivid colors and in-your-face subject matter could revolt the faint-hearted. Sex, strange, and gruesome—no topic is too risqué. But while Saul is assaulting our taste he simultaneously and rudely confronts societal ideas about sexism, racism, classism, and politics. In the 1960’s these themes were being challenged across the United States, but perhaps no voice so vehement and grotesque as Saul’s. Fifty years ago housewives were becoming feminists, gays demanding equality, and races desegregating, while sex and drugs were rampant. But even amidst the progressive counterculture Saul’s work, it seems, took offense too far. Fifty years ago Saul experienced some success but his work was perhaps ahead of it’s time—akin to serving a 72 oz steak to a juvenile, with just a tiny, yet ravonous, little stomach—but still too young for such a violation.

The problem with Saul’s work isn’t its offensiveness. The problem is that in fifty years his work has changed little. In fifty years sex and and the “isms” have been unmasked and we are not so easily shocked. Not surprisingly the work looks dated, easily pegged to his influences; 1920’s surrealism, 1950’s pop art, and comic books from the 1970’s. Fans of Peter Saul’s work today are defying modern popular taste by embracing it’s retro-ness and its weirdness. But there is something truly honest about Saul’s work—he did remain true to his angry observational style for fifty years. So perhaps there will be demand again for a platter of Peter Saul.