RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Library sculpture

["Ross, Matt" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> > Hookers and Coke at least would have some use. A sculpture 
> doesn't do much
> > of anything.
> 
> Phillistine. :-)

Why does everybody hate the Phillistines?  I'm sure they had their share of
art, or what passed for art at the time.

> > Not that I have anything against sculpture but did they really
> > need to spend that much on it? I'd much rather see an artist
> > donate the work or at least be paid something reasonable.
> 
> OK, so let's work this out, shall we?  Albert Paley is, as living
> sculptors go, pretty famous.  Many people do and have appreciated
> his work.  He's not the kind of artist who hangs around cafes all
> day desperately waiting for the commission that will make his
> reputation.  His time is actually worth something, so if you want
> the guy to design and execute *2* fairly enormous sculptures, it
> will not be especially cheap.  (Heck, the work can be fairly
> dangerous; the reason he won't be at the library dedication is that
> he just got out of the hospital after being treated for extensive
> 2nd and 3rd degree burns he got when his welding torch slipped.) My
> rough guess is that this work probably required about 1000 hours of
> his time (including designs, prototypes, back and forth stuff with
> the architects and the library board, etc.), and probably 1000 hours
> of various lackeys and assistants.  And rent on a place big enough
> to hold stuff like this.  Having said that, $240K is arguably still
> a pretty high price, although how high I wouldn't really know since 
> I don't know how much the alternatives would have been.

Could be worse though.  At least they didn't try to commission a statue of
some Missourian.  That would even make the sculpture look good. ;-)

> > I don't blame the library for spending a donation for what it
> > was donated for but it annoys me that someone would donate that
> > much money for something so useless.
> 
> I'd guess they donated the money because the possibility that great 
> public art would soon be seen in Columbia excited them, and that 
> they thought it would bring them and others pleasure.  Not every 
> piece of art is a masterpiece, of course; there is some risk.  It 
> may turn out that nobody will think very much of these sculptures 
> now or even in the future.  That would be sad, but I can't say that 
> I'm annoyed that somebody tried to do *something*.

He's not annoyed that they tried, he's annoyed that they failed ;-)

> > A quarter of a million dollars could buy a lot of books, feed a
> > lot of people, etc. At my current rate of income that's about as
> > much money as I'll make in 50 years. :P
> 
> So, Michael: are you handy with steel-working tools?  Word on the
> street is that public sculpture is the fast ticket to a more
> comfortable life. :-)

Michael and a blowtorch, are you sure your comfortable with that mental
image??
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