The empty plinth (top) and One Day Closer to Paradise (below)
Posted on 06/16/2006 9:46:06 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
One of Britain's most prestigious art galleries put a block of slate on display, topped by a small piece of wood, in the mistaken belief it was a work of art. The Royal Academy included the chunk of stone and the small bone-shaped wooden stick in its summer exhibition in London.
But the slate was actually a plinth — a slab on which a pedestal is placed — and the stick was designed to prop up a sculpture. The sculpture itself — of a human head — was nowhere to be seen.
"I think the things got separated in the selection process, and the selectors presented the plinth as a complete sculpture," the work's artist David Hensel told BBC radio.
The academy explained the error by saying the plinth and the head were sent to the exhibitors separately.
"Given their separate submission, the two parts were judged independently," it said in a statement. "The head was rejected. The base was thought to have merit and accepted. It is accepted that works may not be displayed in the way that the artist might have intended."
So next time you go to a museum and see something that makes you wonder whether it's really art, you may just be right.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
The emperor has no clothes.
I love stories like this. The fraud is so obvious. Like the occasion, again I think at the Tate in London, where a janitor threw out one of the exhibits because he mistook it for trash. I say promote that guy to curator! He has a better idea of what's art and what's not than the eggheads in charge.
Yep, modern "art" = crap.
And not only in the figurative sense, since I think this has been the literal case in some instances...
Fletcher J
I agree. I've seen two year olds with more talent than a lot of so called "artists" and you don't see their stuff in the Louvre.
It's not fraud. It's art.
Art doesn't have to be anything in particular any more.
I LOVE stories like this that do not have pictures. WTF is the point if you don't give the info to the reader to judge for themselves?
This is all you need to know about modern art.
Even without a photo I'm sure that the plinth is a very handsome plinth..../s
When I was a kid we didn't have pictures. We had minds, we had imaginations. And we liked it! (SNL Grumpy Old Man)
All your base art belong to us
Now we have pictures. And we can see for ourselves. Though it may not be to your particular taste, I think the sculpture of the head is clearly "art" -- yet it was rejected. On the other hand, only a moron could think that a small piece of wood on a stand is "art" -- yet they took that and displayed it.
Tom Wolfe: "The Painted Word" strikes again.
Thanks for the pic. I love the laughing head.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.