POP!

"What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good."

— Andy Warhol

100 meters photograph reminds us that we're all gonna die

One photograph, a hundred meters, 178 (I don't wanna write that) people, and twenty days to make "We are all gonna die", a supersized photo made by Simon Hoegsberg. All the shots were taken in the same spot, on a railroad bridge in Berlin, and then put together by the artist. Here's a few random captures (really bad crops I know) from the orignal photo, and on the next page an important message from a dude, don't miss it.
You can admire the photo in its entirety on this page; but don't worry you don't need a 100mt long monitor, there's a slider.

Simon Hoegsberg

Jeff Koons cuteness

A lot of people said in the comments that most of my posts (and contemporary art in general) are kinda creepy. Well, I thought to bring you some cute stuff by American artist Jeff Koons. Here's a giant colored puppy, it's totally made of flowers oh my god so cute. It is part of the permanent collection of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao (the one with that cool structure designed by Gehry).

Those are actually real flowers. It's some kind of living sculpture.
More cuteness by Koons on the next page

Jeff Koons | Guggenheim Koon's page

Jaume Plensa at YSP

If you live near Wakefield , Yorkshire (UK) you may want to go visit the Yorskhire Sculpture Park which presents some works by Spanish artist Jaume Plena. The exhibition includes a 50-metre curtain of poetry made of suspended steel letters, large illuminated sculptures in the landscape, and engraved gongs that visitors can strike to fill the gallery with sound. OK, the sculptures and all are really cool, but you can even play a damn gong!! I'd go just for that. You'll be able to visit it until 22.01.12. Click read more to see the other works (gongs included) and a video of the installation process.

Jaume Plensa | Yorkshire Scupture Park

Art, legal issues and trials (and errors)

October 21, 1926. Marcel Duchamp is on a ship heading for the USA. Along with Messieur Duchamp there are 20 sculptures made by Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi. At the time import/export laws declared that ordinary merchandise was subject to duty at 40 per cent, while art was not. When the sculptures came to customs check the custom official said: “This is not art, this is some kind of industrial item. You’ll pay the full cost.”

Bird In Space - Brancusi
“That’s not even a bird. Has no wings nor beak”

The whole thing grew up on press and media turning soon into a big, and still today famous, US court case which asked: when is a sculpture not a sculpture? The two contestants were the US government and the sculptor, Constantin Brancusi. Among the expert witnesses were Jacob Epstein and the great photographer Edward Steichen, while also drawn into the dispute were Marcel Duchamp (of course), Ezra Pound, and Henri-Pierre Roché, author of Jules et Jim. The point of the legal issue soon became the eternal question: “what is art?” Well, the trial itself lasted about two years, but in the end the court sentence was: “Yes, it’s a bird”. Marcel Duchamp received his money back.  Today Constantin Brancusi is considered one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century.

Next time you see a contemporary work of art, think twice before saying: “meh, it’s just a gimmicky”.

Brancusi | Telegraph article

Rafal Bujnowski - Negative painting

'Milena' is a painting made with the use of reverse color palette. Rafal Bujnowski, artist from Poland, realized it in 2005. The proper image should be developed by the viewer's imagination, or by taking a photograph and reversing it into negative, you can see it after the jump.

Rafal Bujnowski | Raster Gallery

Maurizio Cattelan

Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite:

A gigantic middle finger sticking straight up from an otherwise fingerless hand, outside of Milan's stock exchange:

Since the early 1990s, this kind of work by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has provoked and challenged the limits of contemporary value systems through its use of irony and humor. He teases the art world without ever falling into the naive trap of thinking he can subvert a system of which he is part. Click read more the see other works by Cattelan.

Maurizio Cattelan | Interview

Jeremy Geddes

The White Cosmonaut (2009)

Jeremy Geddes | Interview | Blog