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Modern sculpture has a problem. Well two problems. One it’s hideous and the other is people keep seeing things in it. Remember ‘The Embrace’ that was supposed to honor MLK’s wife?
The 20-foot tall, 40-foot wide “The Embrace” statue was unveiled Friday on Boston Common, where King gave a speech on April 23, 1965, to a crowd of 22,000. The statue was inspired by a photograph of King and Scott King which captured them hugging after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
The art piece, designed by Brooklyn-based conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, only features the couple’s arms during the embrace and not their heads, which has sparked criticism and mockery online. While some people defended the sculpture, others described it as hideous or disrespectful, with social media users posting memes saying it resembled a sex act.
Here’s the latest example.
An art installation meant to shed light on a somber topic — those who have died of AIDS — has instead sparked a lowbrow debate, leading the artist to say he’s redesigning the piece.
The sculpture by Palm Springs artist Phillip K. Smith is planned for the Downtown Park at Museum Way and Belardo Road, near the “Forever Marilyn” statue. Under Smith’s original design, the front of the sculpture consisted of a large piece of limestone shaped into a circle with several concentric ringed grooves cut into it surrounding a hole in the middle.
The back side, which had received the most criticism, was to consist of a ring of protruding forms surrounding the hole. That’s what led Smith to tell the Palm Springs Public Arts Commission last week that he is working with the task force supporting the sculpture to develop a new design because some people say the plans resemble the anatomy of human buttocks.
These problems wouldn’t keep coming up if monuments actually looked like things instead of being abstract obscenities that make a virtue out of a pointless minimalism.
Nobody likes this stuff except a handful of tastemakers and no one, including the people it’s done for, especially appreciate it.
There was a time not all that long ago when monuments actually made public statements by clearly being what they are. Now monuments make public statements by way of their vagueness. And robbed of a clear statement, people instead find things in them.
As an AIDS victims themed piece it’s obvious could be suggested. What was the artist thinking their lost lives meant? Sometimes I wonder if I mistake some people for human?
Quasi human would be more accurate. Bet the “artiste” was paid a bundle for this giant anal orifice.
An anal orifice that maybe has been stretched a bit?
From an origins perspective, AIDS and a sphincter do seem to go hand in hand, but isn’t that kinda like building a bubonic plague memorial with a monument of a flea waving from a diseased rat’s back?
We start from a faulty premise when we try to make sense of what liberals do.
I’ve hated these hideous structures since I was a kid. Local governments and big corporations both seem to like these blights on the environment that do nothing but discourage the soul and dull the senses.
Reminds me of an Everybody Loves Raymond episode where Marie took an art class and made an abstract design that looked like a giant replica of the female anatomy.
It’s not epic and it may be “lowbrow,” but at least the “Forever Marilyn,” statue is recognizable as art and will be at any time in the future, as long as there’s intelligent life to see it. The blank canvass and ‘work’ mistaken for a drop cloth, will not. Nor will the butthole.
“Modern Art” is a symbol of untalented people who think they are artists.
Sculpture, paintings, music, literature… Are all declining except for a few and far between real talented artists. Endless mumbo-jumbo junk “art” is all around.
The same is true with science and so called scientists. It’s all about selling more useless junk.
And of course, it goes for politics and the politicians too. The leftist policies which lead to destruction and misery, instead of freedoms, prosperity and happiness.
Make is a bit more bigger a flatter and bigger hole DROP it on some desolate remote planet and its the Guardian of Forever. A QUESTION
All modern art is hideous. All modern art is bad. All modern art consists of “abstract obscenities that make a virtue out of a pointless minimalism.”
I’m adding “modern art” to my long list of items Daniel Greenfield propounds to be an expert of but that he actually knows nothing about.
Mick, mick, mick, the word “all,”
is nowhere in Daniel’s article, but that’s you, lol. Surely you can do better than that. Nah, you’re a typical leftist idiot. I’ll trust his judgement on art over about any leftists’ especially you, and I’ve done art for a living.
So you’re one of the morons that would pay $76K for a blank canvas, or $300K for a drop cloth? You like the butthole monument? Do you own any of hunter biden’s crap? Which of the pieces of crap Daniel has highlighted do you think is art? Heck, give a few examples of modern ‘art,’ that you think are good, instead of just being a sullen whiner.
Dang, I miss Tricky Blaine(he’d at least keep you on your toes and make you think), and even Southside, who was at least entertaining.
We need higher standards for trolls.
Keep the monuments vague , so there open to interpretation to fit the ever changing ideology of the Left ..lol
Good point! I never thought of that.
Actually, being tangentially connected to the arts community, good commentary by Daniel. The political art has been hideous since I can remember. The interesting current art is something pleasing that resembles something familiar. Like a lion or other animal.
Anyways, from an historical point of view, the beautiful classical pre-WW1 art was blamed after the war for the hideous barbarities of WW1. So as a reaction, some artists created disturbing “modern” art. Actually, some of the modern art produced in the 1920s was good and interesting. But modern art went off the rails somewhere, maybe in the 1950s New York art scene, the first thing that comes to my mind. I had lots of bad experiences from those people.
I was just thinking about Calder’s abstract sculpture “Flamingo” parked outside the Federal Building in Chicago. It’s a monster, nicely scaled to the site, but he can’t possibly have been thinking about a flamingo. The birds have such delicious coloring, their curves and proportions are intriguing, and their body language is finicky. Jagged industrial orange metal was a sturdy but alarming choice of material. The location, not far from the lakefront, is a brutal wind tunnel in a city famed for its savage weather. Guaranteed to rip the feathers off a tropical bird in a race to freeze it to death, even in summer…
I was just reminded. I remember, about 50 years ago, my mther, may she rest in peace, looked at a piece of modern sculpture and said “It’s probably called either ‘woman praying’or ‘storm at sea.'”