At least I didn't get there by slaying people

Clutter? I think popular reaction to public art is a relevant concern to the topic. I expect dyslexia will express dysgruntlement if he's gruntling.

Well...Goldsworthy And Serra...the difference between a poet and a strongwilled blackboot...
Serra may be very accomplished...his work is big, strong and imposing...and certainly contains a strong emotional set....but there is something about it that smacks of a fascist mindset to me. A very personal reaction.
Goldsworthy, on the other side, walks with life and life forms...his work illumines nature, doesn't subdue it.His work enhances my vision, makes me feel a part of a larger world.

Well...Goldsworthy And Serra...the difference between a poet and a strongwilled blackboot...
Serra may be very accomplished...his work is big, strong and imposing...and certainly contains a strong emotional set....but there is something about it that smacks of a fascist mindset to me. A very personal reaction.
Goldsworthy, on the other side, walks with life and life forms...his work illumines nature, doesn't subdue it.His work enhances my vision, makes me feel a part of a larger world.

you have a lovely way with words .... gruntling - so descriptive



and yes GS I quite agree with the comparison, a good way of describing the difference.

Oops, missed this thread

So, posting here again:


Another exhibition noted in my time schedule:

As from autumn 2005, the Kunstsammlung NRW will show a selection of exquisite loans from internationally renowned museums - such as the important collections of modern art in London, New York, Paris, St. Petersburg and from private collectors. This big exhibition of works from Matisse, the first in a German-speaking country since more than twenty years, will show about eighty paintings, supplemented by high-quality drawings and sculptures.


Henri Matisse: Figure Colour Space (kind of slide show on that site)



My state's gallery:
North Rhine-Westphalia's Art Collection - Kunstsammlung NRW

Location: Duesseldorf

In its forty year history the Kunstsammlung NRW has established its own unmistakable profile as a museum for 20th century art, and has long been recognised internationally for its outstanding collection of paintings, including works by Picasso, Braque, Ernst, Chagall, Léger, Klee.

Since 2002 its collection expanded into a new museum and building, called "K 21". Here the work that the Kunstsammlung has carried out so successfully in the past enters a new era, with international contemporary art and art of the 21st century.

a lovely site Walter - I think it should go on Osso's exhibtions thread as well?

Done. (Actually, I wanted it to post there instead of here, where it was done by mistake )

I did wonder!

GS, I must admit, also, to a subjective response to Serra's aesthetic; it reminds me of the Nazi aesthetic, the large black eagle figures, the dark uniforms, the imposing architecure, etc. This is no way suggests, of course, that Serra was a philosophical facist.

Re Serra: I'm not saying either that Serra was a fascist, philosophical or otherwise. His work however summons a mood we associate with fascism...with the Nazis. Obviously, since nobody creates out of the air that surrounds them, but rather creates out of their own mindset, Serra possesses a psychological frame of mind that is not of happy open fields...but rather dark amost completely enclosed walls completely dominating the ambience. He creates dark evil beautifully. Unfortunately, unlike Goya's and Dix's commentaries on war recreating the battlefields, there is NO hint of editorial admonistion in his work, rather complete acceptance of the evil or the darkness.

Berlin Junction by Richard Serra

(The sculpture, Berlin Junction by Richard Serra, is a memorial to those who lost their lives to the Nazi T4 "euthanasia" program. It stands on Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin.)



(Serra gave some ideas for the Holocaust Memorial [by Eisemann] in Berlin, too.)

Wow.


A bit Washington Vietnam Memorial in a funny way.

And THAT is some memorial.

the embodiment of what GS said on the previous page.

From my viewpoint, part of the genius of Maya Lin's vietnam memorial is how sublimely it fits to its site. I saw drawings at some point long ago, and seem to remember the berm behind it is part of the design, but haven't googled that as yet this morning.




(immediate) source of photo, not sure who took the photo but it's a good one -
https://alum.mit.edu/ne/whatmatters/200209/images/summermemorial.jpg

Well we all know how the Bush administration has given over 2000 American and 20000 to 50000 lives to bringing democracy justice liberty and ho ho God to the infidel Iraquis. For a change, let's forget the spin, and let us just use our eyes and best judgement. Who cares whether Serra dedicates his pieces to justice, charity, health, welfare, love, etc etc...letus jut look at what he is making.

I agree, GS. The work stands on its own, and its stand is inherently mysterious or at least ambiguous. His aesthetic seems to be a glorification of the power of the dark side of life, but then he offers it as a memorial to those who have been destroyed in that darkness.
BUT this is MY interpretation, not necessarily Serra's. But isn't this is what art does for us; it serves up stimuli for aesthetic and interpretative responses.

I'm fine, I think, with Serra's sculpture in the last photos. Am wondering about that building behind it... (realize the steel mirrors the top...)

Ms. Crabby...


The vietnam memorial isn't complete there, as I seem to remember that in front of the photo a slope also goes up to meet the top of the wall and it all continues further to the right - one would have to be a bird to get a better shot.. I am just talking about the immediate physical positioning of the land and the granite, and not the immense impact of the engraved names.

I have to go back and look at the one on Foley plaza again (and again and again).

It's not the sculpture itself that I sometimes but not always find troublesome - I was physically thrilled walking through a piece by Serra at LA's Temporary Contemporary (MOCA) some years ago - but its hunkering down forever somewhere of questionable fit, with anyone who doesn't like it being (fill in your own term for out to lunch with no recourse).

People will always not like things... I think most here including me sometimes are talking about whether or not we appreciate something, and I am more interested in the so what, what level of possession of the public space does the artist have over time - the matter of who is the paying client exactly.

This is of course tangential, as the scupture in Trafalgar Square is temporary. But suppose it wasn't...

GS, Serra's ability to create "dark evil beautifully" is a measure of his artistic success.

I haven't criticized Serra's work aesthetically. In fact I have said that he is able and his work quite professional, that he is undoubtedly highly skilled.
BUT if that is all of the man that I get, "that" being the work displayed in many public plazas, it is an evil quality I can dispense with. Indeed, to be critical, I think the evil quality gives presence to what are essentially dull overbearing forms.