Fists high, 'Rocky' statue makes comeback (But Statue is 'Not Art')

Yahoo ^ | 9/6/06

[Socratic]

Check out this link to see some "artistic" expressions of Moe Brooker: http://www.junekellygallery.com/brooker/brooker.htm

That Mr. Brooker is one artiste extrodinaire - just like that precocious child in Junior High.

[freepertoo]

Hey, in the words of Micky Goldmill (and if you haven't seen Rocky, never mind): It's a thing of beauty! :-D

The movie has inspired a lot of people, it's a very good movie, and the platform of that museum and the stairs that lead up to it, made the place famous.

I've been there several times and thirty years after the movie was released (egad, I'm getting old!), people are STILL running up those stairs, dancing around and throwing their arms in the air. I have a pic of my 80 year old mom doing just that!

Of course, this is coming from someone who cannot WAIT to see Rocky VI in December (gonna fly now!). Yo.

[gridlock]

I always loved the statue up there, precisely because thousands of people would run up the steps, dance around the statue, and leave without ever going inside. It must have driven the pointy-headed types insane!

Sometimes that's a good thing. Museum curators can be too serious for their own good. Now nobody will come to the top of the steps to disturb their peaceful afternoon naps. How will that make anything better?

[LexBaird]

Rocky's battle to the top "is a concept, it is an idea, and ideas don't need justification in terms of objects."

Gee. Professor, if concepts have no need to be manifested as objects, that kinda puts you out of a job, doesn't it? We'll all just think about a concept, such as "Liberty", "Flight", "Love", or "Motion", and melt down those extraneous chunks produced by Rodin, Brancussi, Calder and Bartholdi.

[ConservativeDude]

Rocky is a helluva good movie.

The rest of them, except for V (which I saw in French), are entertaining...but not great films.

And I totally agree tha I freakin' can't wait to see Rocky VI!

By the way, seen the trailer? It will make you want to go out and do some chin ups. Awesome.

There is even a classic scene where the champion is verbally sparring with the presumably ancient Balboa, seeking his comeback. The champ (obviously much younger than Rock) says something like, "When were you big? In the 80s?"

Rock replies in that great deadpan voice, "Actually, it was more like the '70's"

I love it and can't wait.

As for the statue, it should stay.

[Skywalk]

Uh, whatever, man.

What's funny to me is that much of what we consider 'art' from ancient civilizations was hammered out by 'craftsmen' who worked from given templates or drawings and were no less copying an 'image' to make their object than the sculptor who made the Rocky statue.

First, define art, then tell me why this statue doesn't fit the definition. BTW, do you know that film is an art form or do you pretend that multicolored window panes (one piece I saw in the Philly museum) are art while film which is the culmination of the visual, the aural and the written is not?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Despite complaints that the statue is piece of kitsch undeserving of display near Renoirs and Monets, the city Art Commission voted 6-2 Wednesday to move the 2,000-pound bronze out of storage and put it on a street-level pedestal near the museum steps.

Gimme a frigging break. If Rocky hadn't made his famous movie run up those stairs, many Joe- and Jane- sixpacks in this country wouldn't have known of the existance museum. There IS no such thing as bad publicity. These snobby art freaks are a hoot.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

*humming Rocky theme*

Best Rocky Theme version - Maynard Ferguson!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Moe Brooker's work - vaguely resembles my 5 yr. old's artwork.

[Mr. Brightside]

do you know that film is an art form

But Rocky was not a film.

one piece I saw in the Philly museum

Additionally, that museum is not a real building.

(/sarc)

[MrEdd]

Mark Knopfler - From the Dire Straits white album.

In the Gallery

Harry made a bareback rider proud and free upon a horse
And a fine coal miner for the NCB that was
A fallen angel and Jesus on the cross
A skating ballerina you should have seen her do the skaters waltz

Some people have got to paint and draw
Harry had to work In clay and stone
Like the waves coming to the shore
It was in his blood and in his bones
Ignored by all the trendy boys in London and in Leeds
He might as well have been making toys or strings of beads
He could not be in the gallery

And then you get an artist says he doesn't want to paint at
all He takes an empty canvas and sticks it on the wall
The birds of a feather all the phonies and all of the fakes
While the dealers they get together
And they decide who gets the breaks
And who's going to be in the gallery

No lies he wouldn't compromise
No junk no bits of string
And all the lies we subsidize
That just don't mean a thing
Ive got to say he passed away in obscurity
And now all the vultures are coming down from the tree
So he's going to be in the gallery

[goldfinch]

"It's not a work of art and ... " said Brooker, a professor at Moore College of Art and Design.

Of course it's not art. Art is a naked woman dancing with a dead pig. /sarc

[ICU812]

Don't you guys know anything?!
Its not art because it wasn't paid for with tax dollars.

[Kirkwood]

Maybe Rocky would have gotten more respect as a discus thrower. >br>

[Kirkwood]

Apparently only a true artist does not color inside the lines.

[Little Pig]

Precisely! What is Art, if not the physical/tangible expression of an idea?

[james500]

Moore College calls Brooker a "Professor of 2D Fine Arts".

Bitter about only making it to the 2nd dimension, Moe? Maybe some night classes at the community college would help.

[middie]

Thanks-I played Maynard all rainy afternoon Monday waiting for the Hurricane - Seminole game; even going back to some LPs from the 70s and with Stan Kenton on the old turntable.

[Darkwolf377]

Uh, whatever, man. What's funny to me is that much of what we consider 'art' from ancient civilizations was hammered out by 'craftsmen' who worked from given templates or drawings and were no less copying an 'image' to make their object than the sculptor who made the Rocky statue. First, define art, then tell me why this statue doesn't fit the definition. BTW, do you know that film is an art form or do you pretend that multicolored window panes (one piece I saw in the Philly museum) are art while film which is the culmination of the visual, the aural and the written is not?

zzzzz--oh, sorry, dozed off there during the seventh-grade "What is art?"

Have no idea what you're babbling about after BTW. I've shot film and video so I guess you're somehow suggesting that I was saying film wasn't art, which I never suggested, but...

What exactly is your point again? Oh, right--that a promotional statue of a Hollywood star MUST be considered art. Hmm, that can't be it. That art was created by craftsmen--geez, now there's a freakin shock, you must have paid real good attention to that show on Sunday mornings where the guy paints a landscape in 22 minutes...

What was your point again? Oh, "define art"--isn't that what all those people who use NEA grants to make pornographic pictures with excrement smeared on them say?

Now I'm starting to understand your point of view. Enjoy your Mapplethorpe photos, and get back to me when you've passed that "Art Appreciation" correspondence course.

[Darkwolf377]

That must have been an error, it took me to his collection of scratch paper remnants. He says "Art is about the asking of questions." My question is, "What the hell were you doing in art school?"