Artist Unknown

"Artist Unknown" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from Season 2. In this episode, SpongeBob joins Squidward's art class.

Plot
As the episode begins, Squidward is teaching an art class at the Adult Learning Center, and cannot wait to see his new students. He opens the doors and greets a whole crowd of people, who are actually looking for the cooking class. They depart, leaving behind only one pupil: SpongeBob.

Squidward begrudgingly starts to teach SpongeBob what he knows. He starts off by demonstrating a poorly-drawn circle on the blackboard and has SpongeBob copy it, but is shocked when SpongeBob produces a perfect circle. He demands SpongeBob show him how he did it, so SpongeBob effortlessly draws a realistic human head, erases the details, and leaves a perfect circle behind. Squidward snatches SpongeBob's paper and crumples it up, which SpongeBob then turns into an origami sculpture of himself and Squidward playing leap-frog. Squidward rips it apart, but SpongeBob simply forms the scraps into a picture of them continuing their game.

Squidward then attempts to show off his prowess with the chisel, creating a mere pile of rubble. However, with a single stroke of his mallet, SpongeBob produces Michelangelo's David from a raw block of marble. Squidward is amazed, but out of jealousy, he scoffs at SpongeBob's masterpiece and refuses to acknowledge his talent. SpongeBob, unquestioning of his teacher's judgment, is ashamed of himself and throws himself out of class, falling into a dumpster being hauled away to the city dump, saying that he deserves it. Squidward feels a bit bad for hurting SpongeBob's feelings, but decides to shut down his class, regardless.

Immediately after, an art collector named Monty P. Moneybags comes in, saying that he is looking for art to purchase for his new museum. Squidward shows off his own pieces to him, but Monty dislikes them all because they are all based on Squidward himself.

However, he falls in love with SpongeBob's masterpiece, which Squidward takes credit for. While carrying the heavy statue to Monty's car, Squidward accidentally knocks off its head. Monty assures Squidward that he should easily be able to make another one, and that he will come back the next day to get it. Squidward, desperate for SpongeBob to make him another masterpiece, goes to the dump and convinces a depressed SpongeBob that he deserves another chance.

Upon returning to art class, SpongeBob has unfortunately taken Squidward's prior lessons to heart, and so fails to create anything of decent quality. When he tries to chisel another marble statue, it simply collapses into a pile of rubble. Squidward goes insane with frustration and begins smashing pillars of marble. SpongeBob concludes that his artistic "triumph" was too much for Squidward to handle, and crashes through the wall, going back to the dump.

The episode ends when Monty P. Moneybags returns and, upon seeing what Squidward has produced, incredulously asks who is responsible. Squidward shifts the blame onto the janitor and angrily storms out. However, unknown to Squidward, he has made an even more beautiful and bigger rendition of David while he got angry, and Monty cries out to the janitor, "You, sir, are the greatest artist who ever lived!", ending the episode.