A show of Thomas Kinkade at a real art museum? Really? Fullerton’s Main Art Gallery at California State University is hosting a show of the self-proclaimed “Painter of Light.” “Having Kinkade at Grand Central is kind of like having McDonald’s pitch its Big Macs on PBS, or having Pepsi and Coors Light throw a rock concert on Washington, D.C.’s Mall. ‘There’s no financial motivation for us to do this. It’s for the sake of stirring things up, creating dialogue.’ Apparently, the strategy has worked. CSUF students and faculty have been buzzing about the upcoming show, and many are furious.”
Category: visual
The Community Powers Of Weather
Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project installation in the Tate Modern’s vast Turbine Hall has been a phenomenal hit with visitors. But it’s coming to an end and Eliasson reflects on why it appealed to people. “I wanted a subject that implied `community’ and that was open-ended. Predicting weather is one way we collectively try to avoid the unforeseeable, which our lives are always about. The weather is a subject about which a community may also permit a high degree of disagreement: I can say `I hate the rain,’ you say, `I love it,’ and you may still think I am a nice guy.”
SF Museum Garage Construction Halted By Judge
A San Francisco judge has halted construction of a parking garage in front of the de Young Museum, saying that the way the garage is being financed is not allowed. Delay in construction will cost the museum millions. “The de Young museum’s summer 2005 reopening will be delayed until the garage is built, because a big hole will be created in front of the museum as the garage is being constructed. Museum officials now expect to open the facility next September — three months late — which means $3.8 million in lost revenue and added expenses,
The Greening Of A Freeway
The route along the freeway in Boston that has been relocated underground (the Big Dig) is to become a greenbelt. As the old freeway is dismantled, Robert Campbell is taken with how big the space is. “It’s just possible that the greenway site is more stunning today than it will ever be again. That’s because of the way the remaining fragments of the old artery stand around in it, like mysterious wreckage from an earlier civilization. They may be junk, but — as artists long ago discovered — junk can be visually rich.”
Schjeldahl: A Whitney Based On Good Instincts
Peter Schjeldahl appreciates the instincts demonstrated by artists in this year’s Whitney Biennial. “All of a sudden, artists are again plainly smarter in their bones than art intellectuals are in their brains. The operative word is ‘plainly.’ Painting and drawing are back. That’s the big news of this Biennial.”
Rust-As-Art – Florida County Relents on Public Sculpture
Officials in Tampa Florida have relented in insisting that an artist scrape the rust off a public sculpture he made. The artist – Bradley Arthur – insisted that the rust wasn’t an error, but part of his artistic intentions for the piece.
The Meaning Of Rust
As public officials attacked his public sculpture because it was rusting, Artist Bradley Arthur suggests that the rust is part of the pieces’ status as living art, a common theme in works subjected to the elements. He’s a gregarious sort who loves discussing meaning and subtext and symbolism. He’s given to making lofty statements that can sound pretentious to people less aesthetically minded. At the Ybor City sculpture, he kneels to rub off a reddish smudge. ‘It’s like the piece is crying,’ he says wistfully.”
ROM To Get $25 Million Gift
Canada’s second-wealthiest family is set to announce a major gift to the Royal Ontario Museum, which is in the planning stages of a CAN$200 million expansion project. Galen and Hilary Weston will contribute as much as CAN$25 million to the ROM’s capital campaign, a donation which will buy the Westons the naming rights to at least some part of the new expansion. The contribution means that the ROM should have all the cash it needs to go ahead with the first phase of its expansion.
Thieves Hit Elvis Museum
Thieves have raided the Las Vegas Elvis Presley Museum – known as Elvis-A-Rama. “Police said the suspects stole a tow truck and drove it into the museum’s rear door, then used lead pipes to break open three Plexiglas cases. The bandits were in the museum less than five minutes, police estimated. Among the stolen inventory: a gold-plated handgun, a custom scarf, a bracelet and watch, Presley’s Humes High School ring from 1953 and a Louisiana Hayride “E. Presley Day” ring from 1956.”
Brilliant: I’m Naked On A Plinth In Trafalgar Square
After 150 years of debate, the sculpture for the fourth, hitherto empty, plinth in Trafalgar Square was chosen on Monday; the winning artwork was Marc Quinn’s marble statue of Lapper, naked, eight months pregnant and as smooth and exposed as a newborn chick. ‘I think it’s absolutely brilliant. I don’t feel the least bit embarrassed about everyone staring at me naked – I wouldn’t have done it if I felt like that. I hope it opens their eyes’.”