Name that Modern Art

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Not sure Prim (its probably been close to 20 years since I was last there). But Ax, you are completely correct that the scope of the thing gets lost in a picture. I definitely recommend if people take a trip to D.C. that they venture out to Hains Point and check it out.

[truehobbit]

Yikes, Voronwë, that looks totally scary.

[narya]

Sorry for being such a poor thread hostess. Life has not been imitating art lately, at least not a serene piece of Moore.

Today I got up at 5:45 AM, biked to BART (train), took BART into Oakland, then a bus to Alameda, then worked 10 hours (well, sorta worked) then had a hairy 2 hour commute back, (the bus was 1/2 hour late and the connecting train was 1/2 hour late, and I got to watch an escaped convict get caught by the police in my very own train car), to arrive home and find that my brother and sister had dropped in for the evening to use our pool (well, it's 107 degrees out, can ya blame them) and as soon as they left, my parents called me to help them make airline reservations over the phone, and now it's 10:36 PM and time for bed. But wait, I need to do homework! Sigh. Please carry on without me.

[Primula Baggins]

<beams virtual neck and shoulder rub to narya>

[narya]

Oooooo thanks!

Whew! Got the homework done.

Now about that Moore: I really don't like it because it doesn't flow. It stops and starts and seems out of balance. But maybe he wanted it that way.

Somehow, the left hand side remindes me of Wallace and Grommit.

Ax, I like your idea, that we are all artists. Maybe the difference is that some are just much more successful in persuading patrons to fund their art. I define art as something visual that moves my soul. My tastes run towards Carravegio and Ansel Adams - rather representational, I'm afraid.

I have served on selection juries for public art, and have seen the whole spectrum. When selecting the art for the columbarium I designed, I ended up championing the guy with the least representational art. Here's an article, though the pix aren't that good. In that particular situation - a cemetery - the art of half-formed thoughts seemed better than something realistic. And the competition was awful - giant steel origami flowers, plain black circles, giant owls with faces painted on the wings, yikes!

Most people either love the sculptures or hate them. My family calls them Mommy's Mummies.

http://www.anchoragepress.com/newarchiv ... 2ed21.html

[Impenitent]

Can't really tell from the pics - small, grainy and there's only two sculptures.

But...they seem interesting. I also like to get tactile with sculpture and I got a little of that feeling looking at the pics.

They seem in the midst of forming/reforming/melting. Yes. I think they work for me.

And impressed to discover that you designed the columbarium and assisted in choosing the art for it also. Woot!

Sorry to hear about your very trying day - I hope you have a good night's rest as you deserve.

Also wish I would catch up with you sometime - I feel like I'm a ship passing in the night with most people these days.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

...and I got to watch an escaped convict get caught by the police in my very own train car...

Sounds like you had a very eventful day.

(I sent you a PM the other day with the info we discussed at the restaurant in San Francisco. Have you looked at it?)

Those large non-representational sculptures are pretty popular here in California. There was one outside the Oakland Museum that my wife and I discussed while we were on vacation there a couple of weeks ago. They have several on the campus at Sacramento State University where we went to school, too. I'm aware of them, but they don't usually catch my attention or cause me to think about them too much.

I think that's what good art does, it makes you think, or at least go, "Ooooo!".

[axordil]

Make no mistake: there's a LOT of mediocre public art out there, most of it modern or post-modern. Part of this comes from the fact that it's not always the best match between context and piece...and that doesn't just mean the physical context.

Look at the history of Richard Serra's "Twain" here in St. Louis. Reviled from the get-go as ugly and yet intrusive, it was dropped into the Gateway Mall area of downtown and promptly became a favorite de-watering hole for drunks. On the other hand, the piece he did for the local Contemporary Arts museum...not a peep from the put-upon public.

Art placed in a high-traffic, neutral public space has to be DIFFERENT than art placed in a traditional museum or even sculpture garden setting, because people aren't there to look at it. If "Twain" were, say, at the local sculpture park it wouldn't have the same issues.

You're gonna ask me what that difference is, aren't you? I don't know if I've thought about it long enough to give a good answer. But I think it may have something to do with NOT blending in or meshing with the environment, while at the same time belonging there. A tall order, I know.

[narya]

http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/par ... serra.html

Twain Sculpture Dimensions:
7 slabs: 40 feet long
1 slab: 50 feet long
Weight: 20 tons each

Cost:
$235,000

I'm sorry, but that's just a wall. A really expensive wall. Sheesh.

[axordil]

Several walls, actually.

It actually looks better from the surrounding building than from street level.

But it looked its very best not too long after installation, when some non-destructive vandals (or perhaps creative critics, your choice) added some white magnetic accents to make it look like a bunch of giant half-buried dominoes.

[narya]

I thought the 2 hour commute the other day was bad. Today it was 2 1/2 hours. The bus and the BART train were on time, but the last leg of my trip, on my bike, was delayed indefinitely - someone stole my bike. I finally got home around 8 PM, after filing a police report and taking the bus.

Art, don't talk to me about art ....

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Arrgggghhhh! Narya! Was it locked up?

[Primula Baggins]

Narya! I am so sorry!

[yovargas]

So this thread is dedicated to posting modern art pieces and discussing them. The more off the wall, the better.

How bout this thingy:



I kinda like it.

[Frelga]

A shortcut to mushrooms!

Although my first thought was "Pelvic bones!"

Abstract art is wasted on me.

[truehobbit]

Yes, not bad.

Hmmh.

Given the lack of room and soil, Japanese technicians have developed artificial trees. Imitating the real thing in shape and height (they are still working on the colour), these constructions contain an intricate mechanism that transforms carbondioxide into oxygen, which is then released from small jets on the top of the structure. It takes a million kilowatts of energy to produce the oxygen for one intake of breath, but the developers say the advantages provided by the fact that one doesn't have to clean up around these trees, that they can be shaped and (in the future) coloured any way you like, and that they are mobile and can be moved to wherever they may be needed, far outweighs the drawbacks. Also, they say that these artificial trees are more in keeping with the lifestyle expectations of the 21st century. They are confident that they will soon replace biological trees in urban environments.

(Feeling a bit cynical here, I guess. )