Posted on 01/20/2006 3:27:18 AM PST by Republicanprofessor
Madrid 'mislays' Serra sculpture
The sculpture comprises four large slabs
A leading Spanish museum has admitted it has lost a massive steel sculpture which weighs 38 tonnes. Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum bought the Richard Serra sculpture in the 1980s for more than $200,000 (£114,000).
The museum says that in 1990 it put the sculpture in a warehouse belonging to a company that specialises in storing large-scale artwork.
But when it sought to put the sculpture back on display a few months ago, no-one knew where to find it.
The police are now investigating its disappearance.
The museum, one of Madrid's largest, commissioned the sculpture by American artist Mr Serra in 1986 and acquired it a year later.
The company that was supposed to be holding the sculpture - comprising four steel slabs - was dissolved in 1998, daily newspaper ABC has reported.
The piece's disappearance only came to light when the museum's director Ana Martinez de Aguilar decided to put it on display again.
This is one of the "site-specific" works that has been designed to be placed in one site and one site only.
Serra was the sculptor of the Tilted Arc that was forcibly removed from a government plaza in NYC in the eighties.
Art ping.
Let Sam Cree, Woofie or me know if you want on or off the art ping list.
Dollars to doughnuts it was sold as scrap by workers who never imagined it had artistic value. They may have been right.
I am also pinging the art appreciation/education list because it might become an interesting thread about minimalism.
Let me know if you want on or off this ping list.
He is interested in a sense of danger in his works. In his One Ton Prop (House of Card), four five-hundred pound pieces of steel were just propped against each other. The sense of imminent danger was such that one worker, I believe, lost his leg when dismantling the piece. (There is NO excuse for art to harm anyone.)
Now the content that Freepers might like is the way the Tilted Arc (shown above in my comment under the article) cut across the government plaza in NYC. This is a huge piece of steel, leaning dangerously, blocking easy passage across the plaza. Now, is our government not bloated to a dangerous degree, leaning with its own weight into our spaces?
The story of the destruction of the Arc is way too much to get into here. Maybe some of you remember the ruckus.
Will Serra be remembered in 100 years as a great artist? You tell me.
It appears that they could buy a replacement that no one could separate from the original. My guess is it would cost much less than $200,000. It may cost a sawbuck or two to move it. to move it.
I've seen a very similar sculpture on the campus of Western Washington University. It's taller than a person. I kind of liked it. I checked and Serra is one of the artists represented in their modern sculpture collection.
(There is NO excuse for art to harm anyone.)
IIRC two workers were killed assembling a piece of sculpture between the math and physics buildings at Princeton. This must have been in the early 70's. The sculpture remained, with a commemorative plaque.
I vote no. We had one of those "sculpturs" here in front of our Civil Courts Building. It was a large, rusty slab. The homeless found a use for it. I shall say no more.
There is a similar waste of money and space here in St. Louis.
He will be a minor footnote in the back of a bibliography of scrap metal.........
I vote NO on Serra.
Incidentally, members of Boston's art elite felt that the sculpture "Partisans" by Polish immigrant Andrew Pitynski, depicting five emaciated horsemen, didn't fit in a park which emphasizes US historical themes. In June the Boston Art Commission voted to have the work removed. The Boston Polish community is looking for an alternate location in the city. (Source: The Washington Times, Jan. 20)
Have they tried the City Dump?........
They were still talking about it when I got there, so it must have happened some time before the fall of 73.
It's much more elegant and evocative than four slabs of Cor-Ten, though. It was just in the wrong place.
Apparently it's going back to its owner in San Francisco, according to the Boston Glob.
That's when I got there.
What was your major?
Let's just say that I had plenty of chances to view that sculpture.
Well, I was over on the other side of campus with all the liberal arts types. I don't think I was ever actually physically present that far down Washington Road.
http://www.townhall.com/news/ap/online/regional/us/D8F7CE080.html
I did not realize that it was to commemorate freedom fighters from all over: from the American Revolution to those in Poland who fought Nazism and then Communism. I do admire the thought, and I like the work. I think it is quite powerful: these bound men resisting inwardly even if not capable of resisting physically. Even the horses seem to be moaning in protest.
However, my problem is that I did not know the freedom fighter content until I read the story. Perhaps there was a plaque that noted it.
I am sorry they moved it. It is not very horrifying nor nearly as abstract as Serra. The line of figures, guns, and horses in fact, remind me of the St. Gaudens Shaw Memorial also on the Boston Common.
So my question is, what were the objections to the piece, and how did they get away with its removal? Maybe the artist just didn't jump through enough hoops and permission boards to get it installed, and someone's nose was out of joint.
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