Thirsty art lover suspected of drinking sculpture

GuardianUnlimited ^ | 7/27/05 | Steven Morris

[Fido969]

He should give it back, the only way possible.

heh heh.

[Sam Cree]

"A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police said: "We are looking at the possibility someone drank the water without knowing it was a piece of art. Or it could have been thrown away by a member of staff who didn't recognise what it was."

That about sums it up. There ought to be more to art than just trying to be clever. Trying to be cute, maybe.

Art ping. Let me know if you'd like on or off the list.

[Kay Syrah]

LOL!

Hyacinth: Good heavens Onslow it was on a plinth

Onslow: Right yer highness, yer want it back?

[Rembrandt_fan]

A few months ago in Europe--Germany I think--the cleaning crew cleaned up an exhibit by mistake, since the art on display was a pile of litter.

I don't mind artists wrestling with the concept of art as idea, and like some of Duchamp's work along those lines, but think postmodernists have run the notion into the ground. Time to move on to something more original, I think. I know: how about a performance piece of two naked men wallowing in excrement? Oh, wait, that's been done, too.

[sine_nomine]

One confidential source claims that Karl Rove did it.

[Liz]

Probably an art lover who thought it was so ridiculous they sneaked it out of the exhibit to discard it.

[Larry Lucido]

Didn't Fry once drink the emperor of a planet in Futurama?

[Larry Lucido]

Here we go:

[Sam Cree]

My opinion is that skill is more important than just the idea behind the art. I enjoy clever ideas, but it's hard to get them across "artfully" with no skill. OTOH, very simple subject matters can be extemely evocative if skillfully done.

[Sam Cree]

An activist art lover, yeah :-)

[longtermmemmory]

I think the notion that someone drank it is a perfect response to the absurd notion of the artist.

If someone threw it away because it was just a bottle of water, then it speaks volumes to the "artists" lack of talent.

[Rembrandt_fan]

I greatly admire skill; i.e., the degree of craftsmanship with which an artist handles his or her materials--it wasn't for nothing that I chose the moniker 'Rembrandt_fan'. But as a matter of taste, of personal preference, I am drawn to Kathe Kollwitz' woodcuts, for example, rather than those of Durer, whose skill with a graver far surpassed those of, well, just about anyone working in that medium. Her woodcuts have a power and boldness of line Durer can't even touch. In my view, Durer was the greater artisan, but not the greater artist than she. Rubens' paintings, as another example, bore me silly, although his brushwork--for the most part--is as meticulous and perfect as you'll find anywhere, but I'll take an El Greco painting over his, even though El Greco could get downright sloppy on a bad day, with his unnaturally elongated figures and skewed perspectives.

I better stop here. It's just that I so rarely get a chance to talk about those things that truly matter to me.

[Sam Cree]

I'm not that well acquainted with Kathe Kollwitz, but probably also prefer her stuff to Durer's. OTOH, I don't think Kollwitz was short on skill.

She may not have been as concerned with detail, but it seems to me like she was something of a master at drawing. Better at it than Durer, maybe.

I'm also not so much a fan of Ruben's paintings, beautiful though they are, but I love his drawings. Same goes for Raphael.

Velasquez does it for me among old Spanish masters.

[Sam Cree]

This engraving of his mother by Durer is fairly powerful, IMO.

Forgot to mention, I was at the Met last year when the El Greco special exhibition was there. Awe inspiring.

[Syncro]

Wow!

Art Imitates Life

[BROKKANIC]

""Hill said he was considering creating another identical piece.

ROFLMAO! As if it would actually require some sort of artistic genius to fill a bottle full of water.

[cardinal4]

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police said: "We are looking at the possibility someone drank the water without knowing it was a piece of art. Or it could have been thrown away by a member of staff who didn't recognise what it was."

Duh, ya think?? Its friggin' ice, not art!

[Trillian]

I do solemnly swear to rule with honor and insanity ... uh, integrity.