ATLarts

By Jen

November 8, 2007 7:22 AM | Link to this

From this picture I can say that it doesn’t bother me and that it looks interesting. But, in person, it DOES look like an unfinished construction site. Perhaps because it needs to framed better?

By NICK

November 8, 2007 8:13 AM | Link to this

The murial at the top of the escalators at Hartsfield airport.

The picture of all black children makes Atlanta look a Southern Ghetto.

The only blacks in the airport are the ones working, not traveling.

The picture should reflect Asians, Hispanics and Caucasians.

Unfortunatly, when people see that awful picture, they think of Ron Mexico, Bill Campbell, Ray Lewis and T.I.

By WRCz

November 8, 2007 8:28 AM | Link to this

54 Columns was, is and sadly, will remain an embarrassment. A monument to wasteful spending and a stupid local government. ‘Intended to evoke the Atlanta skyline’? I get it, but it’s still butt-ugly. Yuck.

By Neighbor

November 8, 2007 8:28 AM | Link to this

I live 2 blocks from this waste of space. It’s terrible. We need some new faces on the Fulton County Arts Council.

By sandy

November 8, 2007 8:31 AM | Link to this

Love Public Art…HATE THIS ONE!

By Atlantasfinest

November 8, 2007 8:39 AM | Link to this

Nick you are a complete idiot!

I travel thru the Atlanta Airport 3-4 times per month and the mural (not murial) depicts children of all races interacting and playing with each other as well as older people.

It’s unfortunate that we still have people who think this way in 2007. Too bad your too racist to see past the little black girl raising her arms to welcome newcomers to Atlanta on that escalator mural. Amazing how a picture of a mural portraying peace and the 1996 olympic times can be ripped apart and scrutinized by a foolish racist like yourself.

I suggest that you grow up because the world does not revolve around your lilly white suburb.

By PT

November 8, 2007 9:02 AM | Link to this

“I don’t think it’s the function of art to be pleasing.” -Richard Serra

That just sounds like an excuse to suck at it.

And Atlantasfinest, it’s you’re, not your.

By Public"art"sucks

November 8, 2007 9:03 AM | Link to this

The 54 columns are awful. As is the the “art” on the corner of Piedmont/Baker and Courtland/Ralph McGill just to name a couple in this town. Real art examples are the art done by Michelangelo, da Vinci, and even Katsushika Hokusai and others. The phrase, “You’re uglier than a modern art masterpiece” comes to mind when I see some of the public “art” around Atlanta and makes me laugh everytime.

By After the blast

November 8, 2007 9:13 AM | Link to this

The way I judge public art is like this: Imagine there was a nuclear blast and the entire city was buried for centuries. Future archaeologists unearthing the city would come across various objects such as the signature sculpture in Centennial Park or the relief of MLK in Freedom Park and immediately declare it as art. They would also unearth the “54 columns” and think it was the left over foundation of a building that was destroyed in the blast and bulldoze it.

By AlohaVampire

November 8, 2007 9:15 AM | Link to this

Public art is a bad idea.

The Beltline… Yes. Green space… Yes. More trails and transit… Yes.

54 columns… BAD

Public Art is usually a horrible waste of time and money. Just because some granola eating, vegetarian, peace-nic thinks something is art doesn’t make it so.

If you want to view art try the High Museum or other galleries.

The whale on the wall by underground, the mural at the airport, the senseless sculptures distributed around the city should all go. Frankly, the “taggers” seem more like artists than those works we are forced to look at everyday.

We have a lot of serious issues to deal with here in Atlanta. Let’s focus our dollars on real problems and solutions instead of funding some artists quirky conception of what others would like to look at.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I certainly value the arts and culture but don’t use my tax dollars to fund it.

By Chris

November 8, 2007 9:56 AM | Link to this

You know you have to wonder what some of these “artist” are thinking. There are some notable examples of public art around the city. Look across from the Suntrust building downtown for one and the art presented to the city by Prince Charles near Pershing Point. Those are nice pieces of art but this crap like the photo above and these horrid murals, what are we the ghetto city of the south? Stop it already! The Fulton County Arts Council needs to really think about what they approve before writing a check. And Richard Serra stating that, “I don’t think it’s the function of art to be pleasing.”, tell that to Renoir, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, or any other well respected artist. Dumb*ss!!

By English 101

November 8, 2007 10:04 AM | Link to this

To Atlantasfinest, you better learn the difference between your and you’re before you criticize others.

By Atlantasfinest

November 8, 2007 10:12 AM | Link to this

Please pare me from the grammer comments, is this a english blog now?

This is a very informal way of communication online on a AJC blog. I see alot of people getting riled up over my your/you’re mistake but you will not speak on NICK’ rant with racist undertones?

Very typical…

By Feets of Flan

November 8, 2007 10:27 AM | Link to this

Fellow artists, put down your work! We have been outed and I suppose all of knew this day would come eventually. It has taken a genius like Chris to finnaly figure out the reality that art died 300 years ago and everything afterwards has just been subsistence work in the shadows of these past luminaries. You have to admit that it has been a fun ride. But sadly, now the world knows of our ruse.

Perhaps art history in schools was our undoing, as teachers breeze through the prehistoric-to-prerennaissance periods for their favoored Christian works from the 13th to 17th centuries. Then end studies at their beloved Impressionist period, sparing no time for any work made after 1899.

Is this the reason people like Chris hold this period in such high regards? It has to be. If only art history was taught with more of a subjective, introspective approach to understanding the works of artists, writers, and others then we would not have a nation of halfwits who truly believe art died in the 19th century.

By Kat

November 8, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this

And it is Lily White

By Nails on a chalkboard

November 8, 2007 10:34 AM | Link to this

Atlantasfinest: Your stupid. You’re grammar sux. Ewe don’t no a tense from a whole in the ground. Ever herd of the concept of the plural or the propper pronoun? If ewe kant communicate with grace and aplumb, just shutt up.

By jt

November 8, 2007 10:36 AM | Link to this

In the U.S. and sadly in much of Europe, today, public art is always “modern art”. Surely, no one can forget the “art strewn” lawn of the Atlanta Art Institute (the old Equifax Building). To 99% of the population, it appeared that the building was undergoing extensive renovations. To .9999% of the people, they thought that someone had dumped garbage on the lawn. To .0001% of the people, what they saw was genius!

Think about this….Public art is modern or pop art because no one in the private sector would buy the garbage being passed off as art. It takes a government to buy the garbage under the auspices of NEA. In the private sector, if you make an Edsel and no one buys it, you stop making it. In the art world, you make an Edsel and it’s genius to a handful of art critics, but the only people willing to pony up the money to buy the “genius” is a wasteful government who knows that the garbage, while crap, is still not going to make white people made because it’s a statue of blacks and vice versa.

Public art is crap! and everyone knows it!

By TruthBeTold

November 8, 2007 10:43 AM | Link to this

Sorry Atlantasfinest, but the comment from NICK is a very valid point that many travelers make when traveling through Hartsfield. The “powers that be” want the “art” there, if nothing more than to cause controversy with an “in your face” attitude.

By Kat

November 8, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this

Yes, but we are all aware that Nick is an idiot.

By OFW resident

November 8, 2007 10:47 AM | Link to this

Hey - “After the Blast” - that was BRILLIANT! That says it all.

By Alexis

November 8, 2007 10:55 AM | Link to this

Those 54 Columns or whatever were probably created by one of the homosexuals that infest this city, thinking of it in some perverted manner as they created it. This modern art nonsense is about as disgusting as the homosexual agenda that the art council pushes; allowing these gays to create their idea of art and then using my tax money to pay them for it is an insult to all good Christians in this city, or even in this state given that our capitol is over run with the homosexual types.

By Alexis

November 8, 2007 11:12 AM | Link to this

Seen my wife? I am a woman, and I am not a homosexual woman. I am an honest, pious, Christian Republican and I would never lower myself to the vile level of homosexuals. That is insulting for you to even insinuate such a thing.

By Nails on a chalkboard

November 8, 2007 11:22 AM | Link to this

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeowwwwwwwwwww!

By Buck From Tucker

November 8, 2007 11:25 AM | Link to this

So sorry Alexis! From here you take on the spitting image of Charles Bronson, but a little more masculine.

By Atlantasfinest

November 8, 2007 11:36 AM | Link to this

So would the mural art have a “In your face attitude”, if the children depicted were all white?

I believe the mural properly presented Atlanta at the time of the 1996 Olympics. I don’t see the problem with art that shows little kids playing of all races in Atlanta.

I think we should look into the underlying issue on why some on this blog (And apparently many other travelers thru the airport) believe that a mural of little black kids playing is considered ghetto? BTW, if you look closely the mural depicts people of all races. I believe some of you focus your attention on the girl (who has the largest image of all) who is opening her arms to receive people form all over the world from on escalator mural.

By SteveO

November 8, 2007 11:48 AM | Link to this

Those 54 Columns or whatever were probably created by one of the homosexuals that infest this city, thinking of it in some perverted manner as they created it. This modern art nonsense is about as disgusting as the homosexual agenda that the art council pushes; allowing these gays to create their idea of art and then using my tax money to pay them for it is an insult to all good Christians in this city, or even in this state given that our capitol is over run with the homosexual types.

Performance Art!

By NICK

November 8, 2007 11:56 AM | Link to this

Atlantasfinest,

You are the racist. First of all I am NOT white, so I guess their goes your argument on that issue……….

Secondly, the truth obviously bothers you. That picture has mostly black children in it. If that picture was made up of mostly Hispanic, Asian or White children, your people would demand a march on Washington.

By the way, “lilly white neighborhoods” as you put it, the people living there, are the ones that bring business to Atlanta as well as generate business here.

Peeps from da hood just take up jail space.

By James

November 8, 2007 11:59 AM | Link to this

Richard Serra must be a moron. It certainly is the function of art to be pleasing.

By Atlantasfinest

November 8, 2007 12:06 PM | Link to this

It’s kind of creepy that your analyzing a mural of art in the airport so deeply. I still don’t see the negativity in the art? Why are you so enamored and angry about it? That seems to be the underlying issue that you will not address.

By k.tauches

November 8, 2007 12:07 PM | Link to this

the sol le wit public work is my favorite official public art in atlanta! I’m very proud.

but I am wondering, why do so many of the discussions on this blog end up about race ?

By Liz

November 8, 2007 12:11 PM | Link to this

People who see perversion in everything do so because their mind is already in the gutter. I think the 54 Columns is stupid, but never would have thought of it as perverted. I guess as far as perverts go, it takes one to know one. And if you have to tell us your “honest and pious” then you’re likely not!

By C

November 8, 2007 12:14 PM | Link to this

Wow. That’s all I have to say about the weird racist and homophobic rants.

My favorite piece of public art is the red ants in the airport.

By Tom

November 8, 2007 12:17 PM | Link to this

Nick, you’re pathetic.

By ktauches

November 8, 2007 12:20 PM | Link to this

sol lewitt…

sorry…I’m an artist who can’t spell…

guess, my comment’s rendered lame and mute now…

kt

By Feets Of Flan

November 8, 2007 12:20 PM | Link to this

KT I think it is because without race to banter around the halfwits may become restless. I saw it happen once. Very ugly indeed. They had to move from their place of discomfort and take upon the equally arduous task of going to Jim Wooten’s blog and demonize Democrats.

Just whisper and try not to stir their pots. Their ignorance may be their most crippling character flaw, but it is also the trait that gives them their might.

Sit over here with me in the safety of this blind and let’s observe their disturbing behavior from afar.

By MBW

November 8, 2007 12:25 PM | Link to this

Not everyone has to like something for it to be called art. Art is subjective.

What’s important to me is that public art has greater value than just the art itself:

-Public art shows signs of cultural life in a city. -Public art shows that a city cares about its appearance and doesn’t just pave over everything.
-These things make cities more appealing to visitors, businesses, and many residents too.

The value of public art goes beyond just the debate over artistic merits.

Not everyone likes public art…but not everyone likes Picasso either.

By Alexis

November 8, 2007 12:25 PM | Link to this

The Red Ants in the airport are interesting, I will agree. There are no homosexual undertones to that piece, it is pure art. It must have been created by a Christian. Homosexuals are the bane of the American existence, and are destroying our country through God’s wrath on the tolerance of these deviants. As long we allow them to pervert our children’s minds with their so called art, which is nothing more than phalic symbolism (ie, the columns) then the wrath of the Lord shall continue. Atlanta has become far too tolerant of these gays, we need to remove them from our city. Where is General Sherman when we actually need him….

By PT

November 8, 2007 12:27 PM | Link to this

Yo Atlantasfinest, no this isn’t an English board. You started it with your correction in your first post. DUH!

By Buck From Tucker

November 8, 2007 12:40 PM | Link to this

You know the public art work that makes old Buck happy is durned old pink pig on the DADDY D’Z sign near eyedrum gallery. My pappy was a bit of a pig farmer and I dare say I spent the better part of my tender years around pigs.

To a person who likes their pig art on the realistic side, that’s cool. I happen to like pig art that somehow stretched my perception of pigs. To another man, that old metal pig might look like a dilapidated pile of junk barely stitched together with a few tack welds and sheer defiance of decay and gravity. But to me that little feller reminds me of home and family.

Just thinkin about that cute little guy is gettin Buck all teared up and I best take a moment to myself or else I will start blogging about my other favorite public art. You know, that smurf lady on top of the capitol building…..

[sob.]

That all Buck is going to …. say…. about that.

By ktauches

November 8, 2007 12:48 PM | Link to this

feets of flan…well, artistic interests are minority interests…just like minority lifestyles or races. so is it better to withdraw and watch…or participate uncomforably…?

the population of our city ranks with other big american cities…but our different cultural populations can still exist very separately…in dense cities where space is limited and cramped…differences must be confronted and inevitably tolerated…but here in atlanta, there’s enough space for everyone to live protected, or rather, segregated behind multiple cultural gates.

this blog may be evidence of what our general populace is like…but only on the surface. let’s not forget underground cultures.

it’s funny, but public art just might be a fine vehicle for interaction and exposure. more than art, it may be a political healer, though not without growing pain.

and it’s also funny to me…how people can hate on a public art, yet completely accept the offensive advertisements and massive implementation of corporate architecture that dominate, without challenge, our public spaces.

kt

By Feel My Awesome Pecs!

November 8, 2007 1:07 PM | Link to this

KT - I understand. If you must go, then you must. I will be here watching the knuckle draggers hurl vitrinol at each other from this safe vantage point. Just me, seanb and a worn out Rummikub game.

A toast to you from us!

By Feets Of Flan

November 8, 2007 1:08 PM | Link to this

KT - I understand. If you must go, then you must. I will be here watching the knuckle draggers hurl vitrinol at each other from this safe vantage point. Just me, seanb and a worn out Rummikub game.

A toast to you from us!

By Feets Of Flan

November 8, 2007 1:10 PM | Link to this

oops! my cover is blown!

By gottaagree

November 8, 2007 1:12 PM | Link to this

Atlanta’s Finest, I gotta say….sorry, but the murur at the airport is all black and not very welcoming to other races! I hate the airport here, and you might as well have a banner that states “whitey not welcome here!”

Get over yourself, not everything revolves around your black world, either.

By BPJ

November 8, 2007 1:17 PM | Link to this

Whenever the subject of public art comes up, there is a predictable division of opinion: one group rails against anything contemporary, and longs for “traditional” representational sculpture; another turns up its nose at older styles, preferring only “cutting edge” work. (I am reminded today that there is a third group: one infatuated with issues of race and sexuality, regardless of the proposed topic.)

I long for a public art program which embraces a wide variety of styles, old and new. There’s room for realistic statues of important individuals, as one finds all over Europe and some older American cities. The impulse to memorialize, in a representational style, did not die with the dawn of the 20th, or 21st, century. Atlanta has a significant number of figures, especially in the arts, who are as deserving as the writers and artists one sees in stone or bronze in Central Park in New York. The trick is to choose the right sculptors; there’s a lot of horrible kitsch being passed off as traditional art.

Equally, I want a public art program which embraces the art of our time. If it does its job properly, there will be something for everyone to like, something for everyone to loath…..and some works which initially provoke skeptical head-shaking, but which, with time, start to grow on us. The mobiles of Alexander Calder were widely ridiculed when they first appeared; yet pass by the High Museum now and look at the large one on the front lawn, which has become an Atlanta icon….and yes, one which gives pleasure.

On this topic of pleasure and art, works by Renoir and Van Gogh (to take two cited above) were initially displeasing to a lot of people. The wisdom in Richard Serra’s remark is that many great works of art are hard to call “pleasing” - whether it be Rubens’s “Massacre of the Innocents”, Rodin’s “The Burghers of Calais”, or many of Goya’s late works.

In a speech in June, NEA chair Dana Gioia said: “Marcus Aurelius believed that the course of wisdom consisted of learning to trade easy pleasures for more complex and challenging ones. I worry about a culture that bit by bit trades off the challenging pleasures of art for the easy comforts of entertainment.” A good public art program should offer a bit of both, but it must include “the challenging pleasures of art” - which brings us to Sol Lewitt. I’ve seen a fair amount of his work, including some beautiful pieces installed at the High for a few months this summer (& ignored by the AJC), and I have to say “54 Columns” is the Lewitt I enjoy the least. His best work, such as the mural which used to be in the High’s atrium, is beautiful. 54 Columns isn’t beautiful to me, not even in the tough, aggressive way that Serra’s sculpture is beautiful. But when it comes to new art, you don’t know what you’re getting when you commission it - so I’m proud to live in a city adventurous enough to have done so. Let us continue!

By BiteMe

November 8, 2007 1:29 PM | Link to this

And I meant mural, not murur.

sigh Go ahead, Spelling Nazi’s, I’m waiting!

And Alexis…dear God, woman! You can take ANY conversation and turn it into an anti-gay demonstration - I have figured out in life that those that are so anti gay, like yourself, who have to talk about it CONSTANTLY, are usually gay themselves, or know someone they love that is! Get some therapy, move on, and accept your gay son before you lose him.

By After the blast

November 8, 2007 1:35 PM | Link to this

Feel My Awesome Pecs: Your first post (which apparently has already disappeared from view) was hysterical. I don’t know how anyone could top it. It’s now time to turn out the lights on this topic.

By Pompano

November 8, 2007 1:38 PM | Link to this

Sorry, but I also have to agree with Nick about the Atlanta Airport - what’s up with all of that crap strewn between Concourses A & B? If one didn’t know better, you’d think you just landed in Africa - and it’s not even good African art.

By Feel My Awesome Pecs!

November 8, 2007 1:46 PM | Link to this

Right on! Right on, bro!

We reap what we sow. But we gotta weed the crops every so often so we can continue to sow it so well. I’ll just say it for you, “That was deep, bro.”

Spot me? I’m taking some of Pat Robertson’s diet shake. I’m feeling juiced, bro. I’m gonna leg press 2001 pounds, bro!

Here I go……….

Oh no, bro! Totally unrighteous pain in my groin! Muscles tearing…. Sinews plitting….. Hair shirt quickly becoming soaked in cold sweat….

Bwaaaaauuuuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!

By Atlantasfinest

November 8, 2007 1:53 PM | Link to this

Hartsfield-Jackson Mural

http://www.artshow.com/whitehouse/publicart/3Dmural.jpg

Looks like a multi-racial Atlanta to me. I don’t why someone would be so angry with this beautiful mural? Comments?

By Mike Szedon

November 8, 2007 1:57 PM | Link to this

As an artist myself, I would have to say that “Columns” is a piece of pretentious crap. It is one of those “my 5-year-old kid could have done that” things. Much of modern art falls into this category, and sadly enough, there’s enough money in it still to create more of this junk over time. I imagine this was done by one of those “look at me with my laptop and MP3 at the coffeehouse, latte foam in my soul patch, all dressed in black and looking so coolly tormented” types.

Art may not need to please everyone, but this is ridiculous. It actually would look a lot better if the columns were painted, each a different and single color. At least then there would be some visual texture, some contrast and compliment, instead of just looking like, well, stacks of cinderblocks. Terrible, just terrible. I hope it didn’t cost more than $300 over the cost of materials…if it did, the only art involved was the art of the rip-off, and the satisfaction of some pretentious, talentless hack. And you can tell him I said so, artatlarge@gmail.com.

Oh, and Alexis, please ask your doctor if Xanax is right for you.

By workingmom

November 8, 2007 1:59 PM | Link to this

Someone who is racist will see racial undertones in everything. A homophobic person sees the gay agenda. I see a mural that captures the spirit of Atlanta during the Olympics (that is the name of the mural, by the way.) Personally I am just tired of seeing it after 11 years; but it’s a stretch of the imagination to call it offensive or ghetto.

By Atlantasfinest

November 8, 2007 2:02 PM | Link to this

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Mural

http://www.artshow.com/whitehouse/publicart/3Dmural.jpg

The mural is Multi-racial…not all black like some of you think. I travel 3-4 roundtrip for business & pleasure from monthly from Atlanta so I actually know what the mural looks like. But above you have the link so you can see for yourself.

Any more comments?

By Alexis

November 8, 2007 2:18 PM | Link to this

I am not an evil homosexual, and neither are my children. If either of my children were to tell me that they are homosexual I would cast them from my life, as it is a sin against God and if I were to embrace them as sinners I would be just as bad as they are — denying repentence and continuing the sin makes the sinner become the sin, and you must love the sinner, but hate the sin. Once that process is complete and the sinner is the sin, then the sinner must be cast from you or you risk the wrath of God. Wake up people, you are embracing sin by allowing these homosexuals to continue to be among us; you are bringing war, famine and disease to America by tolerating these gays and their wicked agenda.

By Chris

November 8, 2007 2:27 PM | Link to this

The reason I hold earlier art in a higher regard than I do most modern “art” is because it took talent to do what these men and women did unlike modern “artist”. How can you compare Michaelangelo’s David to a big red dot an canvas? And do I favor 13th to 17th artists for Christian undertones, of course not, I favor them because they are a representation of humanity. How can you compare great masterpieces to 57 cinder block columns? Atlanta, my native home, has become a generic, sterile city. Look at the condo high rises going up all over town, the city is beginning to look like East Berlin in it’s heyday. We need more art that is a representation of who we are as a community, showcasing our leaders and our achievements. Not a pile of cinder blocks are whatever that stuff is around Courtland St and Ralph Magill!

By Chris

November 8, 2007 2:32 PM | Link to this

Alexis Shut up you crazy bi*ch! If you don’t like us homosexuals that’s just fine. Don’t come into the city, don’t watch t.v. Don’t leave your house (trailer) as you might come into contact with one of us homo’s and it might just rub off on you. Jesus says love the Lord God with all your heart and love your neighbor as you love yourself. I love you as I am your neighbor. YOU ARE LOVED BY A HOMO!!!! OH NO!!

By Atlanta's Finest Supporter

November 8, 2007 2:34 PM | Link to this

Atlanta’s Finest - you are correct!! I also (and many other A-A) travel through Hartsfield-Jackson quite often and so there are many of us who don’t “only work there”. I am posting only to voice my support for you and your obvious intelligence, powers of observation and persistence. I refuse to post a response to the racist idiots that have exposed their stupidity here. You have done this well in any event. I opened this blog thinking it would be fun to post to. Sadly, I was mistaken.

By gayguyinatl

November 8, 2007 2:39 PM | Link to this

i feel sorry for you, Alexis..letting such vile hate consume your life. I hope your God can forgive you. I know I do.

Oh, yeah…the columns are ugly.

By d_isfordance

November 8, 2007 2:45 PM | Link to this

54 Columns was not purchased by Fulton County nor by the City of Atlanta. It was a gift by a donor, and no public official ever made the decision one way or another to acquire this piece of conceptual art.

Art is a means to an end, not the end, itself. It is a form of communication from one person or group of people to another. It is the spark for further dialogue, not something to shut someone else up.

By Up North

November 8, 2007 2:52 PM | Link to this

Is there something in the water down there that causes you Atlantans to attack each other no matter what the topic is? My bad-you are almost out of water.

By Buck From Tucker

November 8, 2007 3:04 PM | Link to this

Okay, Okay! Nobody old LeWitt’s sculpture! BooHoo! - Let’s move on.

I think we oughta get some more confederate art in this town. The cyclorama is cool and all, but after going to it every month of every year since I was but a wee Buck, I am startin to get a little tired of it. Stone Mountain is alright I guess, but I wish they had just left that poor old rock alone and not messed it up. They could have at least had them ridin on some Harleys! That would have been so killer I think I might have to get a job there so I could see it every day.

I suppose this may fall into the category of performance art, but couldn’t we have some reenactments of the Battle of Atlanta? I mean come on! We are sitting down here on a pile of money and cannot afford one dang reenactment of Sherman blazin muskets and clashing swords down DeKalb Avenue. That would be wickyd!

It may be a logistic issue as it may be hard to find enough people wantin to be a Yankee.

I’d also like to see more piles of cannonballs, cannons, bronze sculptures of generals and such. I’d also like to ladies in hoop skirts ridin around on horse-drawn buggies and men playin banjo with a big chaw in their mouth. But Buck’s idea of public art is probably different than a lot of you fellers.

You got to look at this LeWitt sculpture through a different set of eyes. Now you can go get yourself plastered at Manuel’s tavern beforehand it that helps, but the important thing is to take a gander of it in a different kind of way. Like the way you at a beer after it sat out on the counter all night. Is it still good? It still looks alright, doesn’t it? It’s probably okay unless a bug crawled in their and died or something

That is when you start to see thing take on a new life. I tbegins to transform fromthe thing you see right in front of you into something that cannot be seen visually be the feller standing next to you. It’s a killer trick and it works for me at home as well.

My wife lost both her hands in a bindery accident and if I squint real hard I dont see them hooks anymore. They sort of look like back scrathcers. that makes old Buck feel fine as frog hair.

By Alexis

November 8, 2007 3:29 PM | Link to this

Excuse me, Chris, but please do not love me. You are a sinful deviant who commits acts against nature and perversions against God. You are disgusting and you are the reason that our country has so much grief and turmoil. I rarely do come into the city, as I live in a nice gated community in Gwinnett without need to drive into the cesspool of the city and witness the deviant homosexuals walking among normal people. You men and women who defy the Lord by laying with the same sex are sick! God will have his vengence on you as you burn in Hell.

By art appreciator

November 8, 2007 3:32 PM | Link to this

I initially didn’t like the Sol leWitt piece very much, but it’s got an interesting visual message for me. It’s like an austere, stripped-down statement of what you can see over your left shoulder as you’re standing in front of it: the skyline. It’s as if LeWitt reduced that one aspect of Atlanta to its essence.

My problem with it is: that’s all I see in it, no more, no less. So it’s not very interesting to me. It would have been nice if there were a better relationship between the columns and the ground (stone and pine straw just doesn’t have any chemistry together) or if the columns were placed in such a way that a person would be encouraged to walk through the piece, just to find out what it would feel like as the forms shifted location around oneself, or … well, there are a lot of things it could have been. But it did get me thinking about the skyline, which I probably wouldn’t have done if it weren’t there — I probably would have simply continued on my way as usual, thinking usual thoughts.

I’m not rejecting the idea that the piece means more to somebody else or that I’m really missing something here & would be interested to hear from anybody who likes it more, and why. (If you happen to be reading this blog).

Just the fact that people have written about the piece in this blog means that it has done at least one thing that most people ask of public art: it has provoked discussion. And, for me, it took me out of some humdrum thoughts and made me evaluate this strange object in front of me. It didn’t take very long, though, for me to see everything I could in it before moving on.

Even though I try to keep an open mind about public art, I would prefer that public funds go toward pieces that have more sensual appeal, are more complex, or are better at inviting participation. This past summer, LeWitt had an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art that contained a wooden mock-up of a bandshell that was incredibly inviting, and yes, lots of people were walking inside. He also included an amazing, sinuous linear sculpture that was covered with energetic, flowing shapes and colors, like a 7-foot high, 15-foot long, headless snake. Kind of fun to walk along! (There’s something similar on the wall outside the cafe on the top floor of Atlanta City Hall’s new section, the one with the atrium.)

I liked many of the pieces in the Freedom Parkway exhibit. I was fascinated by the light sculpture — it’s something that I wanted to keep watching & periodically checking. Then again, some of the pieces left me cold. That’s art for ya!

My favorite piece of public art in Atlanta is the Calder. I am at least one person who likes the blue whale mural. I hate the ugly foot near the Merchandise Mart (because it just looks to me like an ugly body part). I like Feinstein’s sparkly mosaics near I-85 and Peachtree. I dislike the dancing girls in front of that high-rise on Peachtree (nice idea, but too large and a bit too ponderous to express the sprightliness of a dance), I like the Atlanta Rising sculpture in Woodruff Park (as well as the fountain), and I like the constructivist sculpture at the intersection of Peachtree and Marietta.

I agree with the blogger who pointed out that it would be hard for the Dept. of Cultural Affairs to know what will result from a commission — the best they can do is pick reputable artists or buy works that are already completed. But they’re never going to be able to please all of the people all of the time.

By jt

November 8, 2007 4:13 PM | Link to this

I appreciate all of the very serious artistic discussion here, because I think it has merit. However, I would caution those of you who are artists or art critics, etc. to remember that art is not going to be viewed only by artists. As a theatre patron, it is hard for me to believe that there are people who don’t like the theatre, but there are - and quite a few. As such, I do not believe that the taxpayers should be held at gunpoint and forced to pay for “art” that is not appealing to all people. If a private business wants to install a statue of Bugs Bunny or Herman Talmadge, then so be it, it is their property to do with as they wish. If another business believes that a long piece of rusted steel bent at a 30% angle is just awesome, then so be it. As a result of such personal, professional and private displays, then the artists who are popular will rise to the surface and artists who can only exist via grants from the mafiosa-esque NEA will learn other trades.

By John

November 8, 2007 4:20 PM | Link to this

The Fulton County Arts Council is made up of self-agrandizing, pompous, full of themselves artist wanna be’s.

God forbid art should actually look like something….

I’d like to paraphrase Charlene Stillfield (from a Designing Women episode…because I completely agree with it):

“You know that big red dot on a canvas that’s in every art museum. You know the one that just sits there on a white [or black] canvas? All these art critics rave about the genius of it and what it means. But you know what? I’ll bet in the dark of night when they put their head on their pillows, they know it’s nothing but a red dot.”

By thinking is hard feeling is harder

November 8, 2007 4:23 PM | Link to this

fellow posters -

I usually don’t read blogs but this is a great read. Thank you for the real, unreal, and satirical. Much appretiation to all for making me think and feel.

I have thought about arrested development, small mindedness, and gullibility and felt the humor, hate, and sadness.

Sol Lewitt passed last april. I went up to columns to toast his life and his work the week of his passing. He did a lot of great work over the years.

If any thing the columns represent lack of funding, lack of understanding, lack of culture, lack of “your (‘re stupid and mean) noun here”….. So in that sense the Sol’s piece works, indeed!?

The Lawless

By Omar

November 10, 2007 7:23 PM | Link to this

This is one of the laziest, lamest excuses for “public art” I have ever seen anywhere. I live down the street from this “piece” and cringe every time I see it.

By Jeff

November 16, 2007 10:15 AM | Link to this

English 101 & PT,

Atlantasfinest writes “I suggest that you grow up because the world does not revolve around your lilly white suburb.”

And both of you have flagged “your” as being incorrect, and that it should be “you’re”, but that’s a contraction of “you are”, and wouldn’t make sense there.

Or am I looking at the wrong instance?