It makes my day whenever I hear about something that gripes me and I find out that it does the same to others as well.
You know how it is, you take a position on one thing or another and you start to believe you are the only person in the world who sees things the way you do.
Then something like this happens to make your day a little brighter.
A cleaner at London’s Tate Britain modern art gallery threw out a bag of garbage which formed part of an artwork because it was thought to be trash, British newspapers reported Friday.
The transparent bag of garbage — full of newspaper, cardboard and other bits of paper — formed part of a work by German-born artist Gustav Metzger called “Recreation Of First Public Demonstration Of Auto-Destructive Art.”
It was on display next to a sheet of nylon that had been spattered with acid, and a metal sculpture on a table when a cleaner tossed it out with the other trash.
A Tate spokesman said the mistake was made the day before the exhibition opened at the end of June, and although the bag was later rescued, it had been damaged and Metzger had to replace it with another one.
The newspapers said the spokesman would not reveal how much the bag had cost to replace.
“It’s now covered over at night so it can’t be removed,” the spokesman told the Times.
OK, so get the picture’This sack of ‘trash’was actually a piece of art and the cleaning people thought it was trash and threw it away when they cleaned up the place.
Poetic justice if you ask me.
I just returned from Germany and saw a lot of things over there I didn’t consider art much less pay big bucks for them. I saw some large pieces of structural steel that looked like someone had dropped them from a tall building or an airplane and they just landed on the ground’.kind of like pick-up-sticks. Folks who looked relatively intelligent were standing around and really staring at this in an attempt, I suppose, to try and discern what was on the mind of the artist when he created this so called work of art.
Me’I think this guy had some old steel beams out behind his warehouse and thought the park would be a lovely place to get rid of them and pick up a few Euros on the side. Probably just loaded them up in his pickup truck, drove out in the middle of the night, opened the tailgate and drove off really fast. He was all set to deny any knowledge of his foul deed until someone called the news media and told them about this amazing piece of community artwork. The next day he was probably back giving a press conference and explaining the symbolism of his creation.
‘Yes, I call it ‘Man’s awakening’because it reflects my vision as to how early man felt when he and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden. Man’s world was total chaos and his angst and pain are both clearly visible in my sculpture.’
You know what I’m talking about. We’ve all seen paintings and other works of art which defy interpretation and understanding. They look like someone just stood in front of a blank canvas and threw paint until it got too dark for them to see and they had to go home. These efforts are designed to inspire us.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame the artist. Any person who can make some serious money out of trash or just throwing paint onto a canvas or whatever gets my vote. I think it’s great. I wish I could do it and keep a straight face. I know I’d crack up trying to explain the hidden meaning behind anything I might produce. Laughing while describing your artwork is not good for sales.
But I question the mentality of anyone who buys a piece such as these and can’t tell me what its meaning is supposed to be.
All of us can look at cloud shapes and tell which one is the bunny or the duckie, but when we look at a million dollar painting and can’t tell if it’s a dog or a truck, then something is wrong.
Maybe I’m just not cultured enough, who knows’