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No wonder Congress is upset !
@ Hire a dump truck to deliver a pile of dirt, place a few stones around and call it "sculpture."
@ Have your local lumber yard deliver four stacks of sheetrock and place them around a room and call that "sculpture."
@ Grab several hunks of rusty scrap metal and weld them together in a lumpy tasteless form and call it "sculpture."
All of the above has been funded with your tax dollars !
Related links . . .
Citizens up in arms !
An example of BAD ART !
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WHY IS SOME
PUBLIC ART BAD ?
Some Interesting Reasons !
Another way to put the question, Why do we have bad public art?
For the record, there is no shortage of talent among artists . . . the quality level of public art is directly proportional to the taste of the people who make the selections.
Who are these people ???
Incredibly enough, many of these people are appointed/selected by our politicians, either directly or indirectly.
Yes, the very same politicians who are complaining in Congress and vocalizing in our various state-houses are part of the problem.
Check your state and more than likely, the person running your state art council/department/bureau is appointed by your governor, part of the patronage system. If you are lucky, they may even know a little bit about art.
Even more directly, your local art official is appointed/selected by your mayor/council and is a supporter of the incumbent. He/she through their staff, orchestrates the selection of your local public art.
If your community is lucky, these people will have some knowledge of art and more importantly, they will have good taste.
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SPECIAL EDITORIAL by: Michael Don Fess
You can call anything ART . . . and some people do.
When it doesn't fit in any category like "painting," or "murals," or "pottery," or "stained glass;" many people call it "sculpture."
Much of the "sculpture" we see today is not serious art, but is a creative exercise. It is a wonderful tool for teaching young artists to think "outside the box" but hardly the stuff for publicly funded exhibits.
Probably, one of the worst examples of our "Funky art" was a table and two chairs with several hand guns integrated through the surface. It stood for several months on the northeast corner of Texas and Edwards in Shreveport, Louisiana . . .paid for with public funds.
What a wonderful influence on our young people of today . . . no wonder congress is upset.
Our museums also encourage funky art . . . a show in Dallas was simply four vertical units of shelving arranged in a square. The shelves contained an assortment of medicine bottles. The creator placed a light source in the center in order to cast shadows on the wall . . . what a WOW!
A bright spot in New York . . .
New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani threatened to terminate the Brooklyn Museum's lease with the city and possibly even seize control of the museum because of "Sensation," a British artist's disgusting exhibition.
More Funky - absurd art . . .
How about throwing paint into a jet engine blast which splatters the paint onto a canvas . . . or letting animals walk through wet paint to create patterns on the floor.
OUR STAND:
Personally, I believe in people's right to create anything, whether it is "Funky art," "Shock-art," "Lewd-art," "Quality art" or otherwise.
I don't agree, however, with the use of our tax dollars to subsidize the creation of public "Funky art" or to fund public exhibitions of this "anything goes" type art.
I believe that art should be a positive influence in our lives.
Someone once said, "Many people have talent, unfortunately, they don't all have good taste."
People, we need art, but we also need to show some "good taste!
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