← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Faust
Thread ID: 14874 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2004-08-31
2004-08-31 13:29 | User Profile
Modern Art put in it's place! The garbage can!
[QUOTE]LONDON (Reuters) - 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.
[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=4&u=/nm/20040827/od_nm/odd_garbage_dc[/url]
Cleaner dumps ã5k art
By PAUL CROSBIE JAMES CLENCH and SARA NATHAN
AN art gallery cleaner binned a ã5,000 work by Damien Hirst because he mistook it for RUBBISH.
Emmanuel Asare spotted the pile of full ashtrays, beer bottles, cola tins, coffee cups and sweet wrappings ââ¬â and thought it was leftovers from a party.
Which is exactly what it was. Hirst ââ¬Åcreatedââ¬Â the exhibit at a launch party for a showing of his paintings.
Emmanuel said: ââ¬ÅAs soon as I clapped eyes on it I sighed because there was so much mess.
ââ¬ÅI didnââ¬â¢t think for a second that it was a work of art ââ¬â it didnââ¬â¢t look much like art to me.
ââ¬ÅSo I cleared it all into bin-bags and dumped it.ââ¬Â Bosses at the trendy Eyestoââ¬â¢rm Gallery in Londonââ¬â¢s West End went wild when they arrived for work and found what had happened.
But luckily someone thought to look in the bin.
Staff dug out all the bits, then used photographs taken earlier to place the junk back in its rightful place.
The gallery decided not to tick off the ã5-an-hour cleaner, but stuck a ââ¬Åkeep offââ¬Â sign on the art instead.
When told of the value of the junk, 54-year-old Emmanuel, gasped: ââ¬ÅItââ¬â¢s worth ã5,000? Oh my God.
ââ¬ÅIââ¬â¢ll make sure Iââ¬â¢m more careful next time.ââ¬Â
Hirst, 35, who shot to fame after pickling a sheep in formaldehyde, claimed the heap of rubbish represented his messy studio.
He said of the mistake: ââ¬ÅItââ¬â¢s fantastic. Very funny.ââ¬Â
[url]http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001361246,00.html[/url] [/QUOTE]
2004-08-31 22:17 | User Profile
This is at least the second time I've read of a piece of modern "art" being inadvertently thrown away by the museum cleaning staff (plus there was the time that a news crew from the "MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour" left their gear against a wall while interviewing the curator of a modern art museum in New York, and when they went to retrieve it, they found a crowd of spectators standing around their luggage and admiring it as one of the various "pieces" of the musuem). It calls to mind what one of our more articulate posters said about Jackson Pollack: "Drink three quarts of paint and vomit on a canvas. You're Jewish, so its art."
2004-08-31 22:52 | User Profile
I never understood why modern art is so revered. It is rubbish, indeed. Also kosher beyond belief.