Accidental Cleanliness Destroys $1.1m Art Installation

[Alar]

That is worth $1.1 Million!?

BRB gluing a bunch of sticks together so I can get myself set for life.

Rofl. Oh you, you're great. Hopefully some of us will also be able to make ridiculously pointless things and get tons of money from them.

 

[BaronFelX]

I take more issue with the claim that this is somehow irrevocably damaged. The value of the idea might be $1.1 million to the buyer, but the materials included certainly are not. Reproducing the water stain should be entirely possible, and should restore the value. In fact, it would by definition have to be reproducible. The "stain" was painted directly on the museum floor, so if a collector were to purchase it, a new stain would have to be painted on their floor where they install it anyway.

So, regardless of perceived value, this piece was not in any way "destroyed."

 

[Hyperactiveman]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THAT'S GOLD!

Take that art world you disgusting troll infested fuck!

Give that cleaning lady a raise and a "gone beyond the call... of cleaning" award.

 

[Sithean]

Oh, my. That is freaking hilarious. Someone give that cleaning woman a medal and a lifetime pension!

 

[slyywiskers]

I guess it's back to a 9-5 working day for this poor sap.

The Artist died in like 1997 or something.... so... not quite

 

[camazotz]

Here's a link to more details about Martin Kipenberger for those interested (watch the attached video, it's pretty interesting):

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/298

Spoiler: he's dead, having died at only age 47 some years ago. He has a lot of interesting stuff. As for whether it (and this odd defaced sculpture that I admit I can't figure out either)is truly art, keep in mind that someone, somewhere considers it art just as much as you or I might think video games can and do fit the same bill. But also remember Sturgeon's Law, because I think it may apply here...

 

[camazotz]

I can lol about the pretentious art world and then walk off and be fine, but the thing that is preventing me from doing so, is that I can go to school for several years, then work forty years at a dead-end job because getting job openings are slim nowadays and the older you get, the slimmer your chances are at getting a good job because employers want young people. I can die never being able to retire because I wanted to raise a family, and there are people like this who make a million dollars for nailing a bunch of sticks together, but now it's ruined because someone cleaned up your puddle of dirt water?

What. Utter. Bullshit.

And for all those are like "Well make your own pile of sticks then", let me preemptively call out that bullshit too. Art critics are extremely fickle, and an Average Joe will get nothing for their pile of sticks cause they haven't kissed enough asses on their way to the top. There are stories in this very thread of critics hating pieces of art, then instantly changing their tune as soon as it's revealed to have been made by a famous artist. Or stories of art critics praising an art because they think it was made by someone famous, and it turns out it was made by a monkey.

My problem is not with modern art in general, it's with the whole industry.

Spoiler: In conclusion

99% of all real artists out there do not fit this profile, nor does the broad industry of art as a whole. There is a small but noticeable clique of very wealthy and eccentric artists who fit the bill, yes, but actual, real, normal artists don't deserve to get lumped with them.

 

[maninahat]

Something like this almost happened at a gallery I went to. I found a toffee sculpture shattered across the floor, so I went to warn the staff. Luckily I didn't touch it: it was supposed to have done that; apparently the art came through the way in which the tower would gradually melt and collapse.

 

[runic knight]

and the cost to money saved ratio of the common, adequately placed sign is once again on the rise.

I can understand where this type of art comes from. I can. It is sort of an artistic reaction to the more standard form of art most people see. Think how realism eventually flipped to impressionism as a sort of counter point. This thing attempts to not fit into the standard form of what people think of when they hear the word art. And, I will say it does meet that goal, rather ironically. Wouldn't expect art that does what it sets out to do to be "cleaned up"

That said, any artist has to know that 1. not everyone will see it AS art, even if it doesn't look like a pile of trash and 2. many will take what they see at face value. Now when you have what resembles a pile of trash with a stain, you kinda have to know some people will see it as just a stain. Furthermore, you'll find that the part of said group may be the lower income bracket that is cleaning the museum your art is in. This all goes back into my first statement, that the value of a simple sign is vastly under rated.

As for my thoughts on this, well, if it got visitors, all the power to the artist. If the money was from taxpayers but it still got visitors, all the power to it. If it was some museum curator buying it from his nephew with tax payer funds though....well, you get the point.

 

[Sansha]

As someone who owns several apartments which between tenants are nightmares to clean, I want to hire that woman.

 

[samuraiweasel]

Maybe people should stop calling piles of crap "art" to make a quick buck...

I'm a practical kind of person, so i admire the more practical designy art stuff, like some things that came out of the Bauhaus...
(been watching BBC's Genius of Design)

Van gogh's almond tree though...

 

[bificommander]

Suddenly the comment that video games can't be art loses its sting.

 

[n00beffect]

Well, you know what they say: 'The path to hell is paved with good intentions'. I can't really say I feel sorry for this accident, since I don't really see the harm in it, or rather, to be more precise, I can't relate to the harm in it; since I am not a modern art advocate, in particular. However I do find it kind of f-ing hillarious, in a vicious, ironic kind of way. Good show.

 

[n00beffect]

Either way, I am sure he will live. The art gallery will have some serious issues to face, however.

He's dead, you genius. Shows how much you know about the art you so ardently seem to defend. Talk about 'poetic irony'.

Is it art? I don't know, but I do know that most people who ***** about modern art don't even bother to try and get themselves involved in it, even as amateurs. Much easier to shout from the sidelines.

- Yeah, you seem to know quite alot about that. You've gotta tell me how that works, some day.

 

[Zeraki]

Either way, I am sure he will live. The art gallery will have some serious issues to face, however.

He's dead, you genius. Shows how much you know about the art you so ardently seem to defend. Talk about 'poetic irony'.

Is it art? I don't know, but I do know that most people who ***** about modern art don't even bother to try and get themselves involved in it, even as amateurs. Much easier to shout from the sidelines.

- Yeah, you seem to know quite alot about that. You've gotta tell me how that works, some day.

I... didn't say that. Somebody else did. Why are you quoting me and not the person who actually said it?

 

[n00beffect]

Either way, I am sure he will live. The art gallery will have some serious issues to face, however.

He's dead, you genius. Shows how much you know about the art you so ardently seem to defend. Talk about 'poetic irony'.

Is it art? I don't know, but I do know that most people who ***** about modern art don't even bother to try and get themselves involved in it, even as amateurs. Much easier to shout from the sidelines.

- Yeah, you seem to know quite alot about that. You've gotta tell me how that works, some day.

I... didn't say that. Somebody else did.

Sorry about that, made a mistake in hastening, my bad. I fixed it now.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

It pains me to see all the modern art hate. Still, unless the artists is dead this seems like it would actually be repairable.

Edit : Whoop, he is dead. Well balls.

 

[Zeraki]

Either way, I am sure he will live. The art gallery will have some serious issues to face, however.

He's dead, you genius. Shows how much you know about the art you so ardently seem to defend. Talk about 'poetic irony'.

Is it art? I don't know, but I do know that most people who ***** about modern art don't even bother to try and get themselves involved in it, even as amateurs. Much easier to shout from the sidelines.

- Yeah, you seem to know quite alot about that. You've gotta tell me how that works, some day.

I... didn't say that. Somebody else did.

Sorry about that, made a mistake in hastening, my bad.

Not a problem, thanks for fixing it.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

That is worth $1.1 Million!?

BRB gluing a bunch of sticks together so I can get myself set for life.

Well to quote Oscar Wide, "All art is quite useless".

 

[ILikeEggs]

I consider Fechin's art far more significant artistically than Duchamp's urinal. But that's because I care about Art, not Art History.

Somebody has flipped a switch in many educated brains, and told them over and over again that art history is more important than art.

And the educated say, yes master, whatever you deem important to the art history you prefer... I will agree that such is the true history of the art. And whatever pictures are important to tell your story of art, well... by golly, those pictures must be great art because only history matters. Only what I am told matters, matters.

Because it has all been a progression toward the shining light of the perfect cultural future. Get in line. Obey the progress.

Look there! History is made again: A giant Middle Finger made of mucous... Hallelujah! This is the promised land!

The above quotation was taken from a similar topic on an art forum I visit once in a while.

Well to quote Oscar Wide, "All art is quite useless".

Not sure what sort of point you're trying to make. While the ice-cream stick fence thing isn't art, it is most certainly useless.

If you really think about it, all art really is quite useless. Art isn't a daily necessity. You don't need art to live. However, art is something that makes life more bearable. It allows you to escape from the daily drudgery of life and nurtures hope to an extent.
Or at least the part about making life more bearable was part of the definition of art before a few ponces came along a century ago and told people that they themselves were right and everyone else could suck it.