BBC NEWS | England | Southern Counties | Empty plinth sidelines sculpture — Here it is. The post that epitomizes the art scene as it now exists. It’s like giving an award to the nail in the wall after the picture falls down.
An artist’s sculpture has been rejected by the Royal Academy of Arts which has instead opted to display the wooden support it was put on.
David Hensel, 64, from East Grinstead, West Sussex, was told the laughing head would be part of the summer exhibition.
But at a preview he found that just a piece of wood intended to support the head was on display on the plinth.
The Academy said the judging panel assumed the two pieces were separate and decided the support was better.
Wow now thats abstract piece idiotic crap. What are these guys smoking?
In all honesty, that’s a small photo of the peg. A decent photo may reveal the peg is the more artistic of the two.
…And that’s the reason why I don’t like abstract art.
Too much BS and the ones into is are usually pseudo intellectuals with too much free time.
You want to see more surreal BS? Get the Cremaster videos.
I know enough of abstract art to not give a damn about it.
this definitely is purely moronic. Is this what people talk about when they mention the “degeneracy” of modern art – that even a peg will do?
Lo, these many decades, when I worked in QC on the graveyard shift in a factory cranking out PVC film — I would take scraps of brilliantly colored plastic leftover from color changes and mount them on earth tones of burlap.
Sometimes I would add a fish bone or something organic from the day’s garbage at home.
Then, working with a reasonably sleazy gallery owner in a nearby upper crust enclave [mostly daytrippers to Wall Street], I would give each a significantly religious title — and sell the damned things for hundred$. It worked well as a cash supplement until I finally quit that gig.
My only fear to this day is that some of that crap will have turned out to be worth some scarey amount of money.
i was in chicago years ago looking at art shops and this guy was selling 4-5 inch blocks of wood that were roughly painted black with a single five cent nail hammered into some random spot and was selling them for $300-$400 a pop (holy run on sentences batman!). i wanted to laugh in his face.
i like a lot of abstract art, but some people just cross the line.
Can you imagine some of the dialogue from the illustrious judging panel?
“Hmmm, indeed. To me this represents the very epitome of man’s inhumanity to man and his rise from primeval ooze. How do you see it, Lord Tinkletop?…”
Almost as funny – except my tax dollars paid for it – is the painting the National Gallery of Canada bought for $1.8 million (Can). It consisted of – wait for it – three vertical stripes. Two colours. But I have to give the artist credit, the lines were very, very straight.
Here is the painting:
http://www76.pair.com/keithlim/postcards/voiceoffire.html
Here is the Wikipedia description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_Fire
RBG
On of my aunts was a restoration artist at the Museum of Modern Art here in New York for a number of years, and told me something interesting…
There’s a piece in the museum (currently) that is this: A glob of lightbulbs on the floor in the corner of a room, all turned on. Just a big pile of lightbulbs. I asked her what happens when one inevitably burns out and has to be replaced.
Evidently it’s a pretty big production. The restoration department has to be called, a very specific lighbulb procured, the piece shut down and shielded from the public eye, then the lightbulb replaced by a bonafide MoMA restoration technician with great care. Not to mention paperwork.
And people complain that other countries have more taxpayer support of art than the US.
Now if the scupture was immersed in urine – that would be art?
(harking back to Rudi Guilani’s centure of a Clinton NEA approved submission for art exhibition)
Just goes to show you that many art “experts” are just full of shit. They claim to know and understand art and it is all bullshit.