Whenever politicians try to pass themselvesoff as art critics, intelligent citizens have to wonder whether all theother decisions made by public officials are rooted in such profoundignorance.
Evenmore of a wonder is why celebrated national artists even bother tryingto create public art. All they usually get for their trouble are vulgarinsults.
It happened again last week when a committee of theMilwaukee Common Council took plebeian potshots at the concept behind a$300,000 art installation for Downtown Milwaukee.
Alderman BobDonovan actually rushed out of the room, saying: “I refuse to have myname attached to something as ridiculous as that.”
Actually, no one canremember respected artists ever expressing a strong desire forDonovan’s name to be attached to any of their creative works.
Atleast Alderman Willie Wade admitted his personal ignorance about art.“I’m just not feeling it,” Wade said, “But then, I wouldn’t pay 50cents for the Mona Lisa.”
Wade’s admission showed why itwouldn’t be a good idea to put him in charge of acquisitions for theMilwaukee Art Museum. Neither should we give other art ignoramuses(self-confessed or not) veto power over public art. The ridiculousthing about the aldermanic anti-art eruption is that the Downtown artinstallation has already been paid for with $60,000 in city funds and$240,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Also, itreally does seem rather charming.
Created by Janet Zweig, a nationallyknown artist born in Milwaukee, it utilizes five animated street signsmounted on light poles near the east end of Wisconsin Avenue leading toMilwaukee’s only recognizable world landmark, the Calatrava addition tothe Milwaukee Art Museum.
Zweig’s installation is an Old WorldMilwaukee addition to the impressive public art collection on the LakeMichigan end of Downtown that not only includes Spanish architectSantiago Calatrava’s first U.S. design, but also the brilliant orangestarburst by another world-renowned artist, Mark di Suvero.
Provingthat public attacks frequently accompany the work of great artists, youcan still hear calls from public officials for the di Suvero sculptureto be moved several miles east from the bluff where it overlooks LakeMichigan. But Calatrava had such respect for di Suvero’s The Calling he actually sited his $100 million addition to MAM so that it lines up perfectly with the sculpture.
Complementing the soaring, futuristic flight of the Calatrava and the grounded industrialbeams of di Suvero, Zweig’s installation recalls Milwaukee in an evenearlier age with an old-fashioned form of animation that flips panelsto create moving figures. Local filmmakers, artists and performerswould be employed to help create small stories to be told flip-bookstyle inside five separate kiosks. What’s not to like about flip books?
Actually, art has always been pretty frightening to politicians.Because most of them have so little understanding or appreciation ofart, they are afraid of being taken for fools.
Iwas living in Chicago in the ’60s when Pablo Picasso, the greatestliving artist of the day, announced he was donating an originalsculpture to be placed in the downtown civic center.
You havenever seen a more terrified group of aldermen. All they knew aboutPicasso was that he created art they couldn’t understand. It was thisnewfangled “modern art” and they couldn’t make heads or tails out ofit.
Picasso was creating some kind of abstract expressionism thatseemed to include pieces of women, but their bodies and faces were allput together in the wrong order. What if the whole gift was a great bigjoke on the city of Chicago? Maybe it was even dirty. Who knew whatbody parts of women might be in there somewhere?
One alderman seriouslyproposed scrapping the Picasso in the civic center and replacing itwith a statue of Chicago Cub Ernie Banks.
One sure sign ofbeing a Midwestern rube is to assume sophisticated artists are alwaystrying to make fun of you. That was one of the big objections voiced tothe Blue Shirt by another prominent national artist, Dennis Oppenheim, that was rejected a few years back for the Milwaukee County airport.
Someof our most imaginative artists make the ordinary fantastic. Thatseemed to be the concept behind Oppenheim’s spectacularsounding piece.Unfortunately right-wing radio scared politicians into believing theartwork was somehow intended to insult blue collar Milwaukee.
Ifyou’re in a remote corner of the airport parking garage someday, youmay stumble across a clutter of sailboat parts scattered in a corner.That’s the noncontroversial art that was created instead.
Goodart is never innocuous. But politicians are uncomfortable with anythingthat does not appeal to the lowest common denominator.
Politicians who are afraid of art make a perfectly good community look as backward and intolerant as they are.
What’s your take?
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