How Jeff Koons Cracked a Young Artist’s Dream

Fresh off his potential “Colbert Bump,” conceptual artist Jeff Koons took a potential PR black eye this weekend in a New York Times Magazine piece titled “I Was Jeff Koons’s Studio Serf.” Former painter John Powers tells a short, but harrowing tale of working in the high-pressure studio of “ideas man” Koons. His experience there eventually led to his giving up his dream of painting altogether. If Jeff Koons is the paradigm for today’s major artist and this is roughly the experience young artists working under him garner, then what does that mean for the long-hallowed tradition of the atelier, where artists teach others artists the trade? If a young artist can crack under these modern conditions, is the tradition of the artist-teacher broken? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "How Jeff Koons Cracked a Young Artist’s Dream."

What Does This Mural Look Like to You?

“What does it look like to you?” asked the Boston Fox News affiliate on its Facebook page in regards to a mural (shown above) by the Brazilian street artists Os Gêmeos erected in Dewey Square. Responses soon flooded in calling the masked figure a “terrorist,” a “Muslim,” and much more racially worse. Some (including a piece in The Boston Globe) accuse the Fox affiliate of stirring up racial tensions for ratings, while others decry the mural (titled The Giant of Boston) as an insensitive image for an American audience and particularly the Boston people, who remember that the 9/11 flights took off from their city. Racism, exploitation, insensitivity—all these are in the eye of the beholder. But the real questions might be what does this mural look like to you, and what does your answer mean? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "What Does This Mural Look Like to You?"

Is it Time to Start Forgetting Some Memorial Statues?

Have you ever walked past a monument, stopped to see what or whom it was for, and either still had no idea what or whom it was memorializing or had no idea why that memorial was still there? The Guardian’s Andrew Shoben asked last week, “Public art: how about some decommissions for a change?” It’s a valid question and one that has stuck in my mind ever since I first read Shoben’s piece. Shoben’s solution to decluttering the monument-strewn landscape is a process of decommissioning to counterbalance the current (and possibly out of control) commissioning process. Although, as George Santayana warned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” is it time to start forgetting some memorial statues? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Is it Time to Start Forgetting Some Memorial Statues?"

[Please nominate in comments any public art or memorials that you would like to see forgotten, shelved, or shifted somewhere else.]

What Did Robert Hughes Really Teach Us?

Upon hearing of the passing last week of journalist and art critic Robert Hughes (shown above), I felt like had lost a beloved teacher. For people who read Hughes’ books or articles or, more likely, saw him on television, he was the fun, brash, borderline bawdy professor whose name and face you never forget. Hughes brought modern art into your living room and made it understandable and surprisingly fun, which makes him a significant cultural figure beyond his contributions to art itself. In the end, it’s important to ask, what did Robert Hughes really teach us? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "What Did Robert Hughes Really Teach Us?"

Will Jeff Koons Feel the Colbert Bump?

Love him or hate him, Jeff Koons clings to the center of the contemporary art world like few artists today. And love him or hate him, Stephen Colbert and his show The Colbert Report act like a cultural epicenter, sending shock waves through the zeitgeist. When Koons appeared on The Colbert Report last week, he found himself ready to ride that wave of sudden success that Colbert himself refers to as the “Colbert bump.” If Koons ends up feeling the Colbert bump, what will it mean not only for him, but for contemporary art itself? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Will Jeff Koons Feel the Colbert Bump?"

Did Shakespeare Hold the First London Olympics?

If the Olympics are all about bringing the world together in one place to play, then William Shakespeare could be credited with holding the first London Olympics all the way back in the Elizabethan Age. The British Museum’s new exhibition, Shakespeare: Staging the World, which runs through November 25, 2012, gathers together nearly 200 artifacts related to Shakespeare’s writings that demonstrate just how the Bard brought the whole world to London, just as London itself entered the international stage as a major center of commerce and culture. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Did Shakespeare Hold the First London Olympics?"

[Image: Ides of March coin, reverse, 43-42 BC, gold aureus commemorating the assassination of Julius Caesar, Rome’s most famous murder and the subject of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The reverse shows the daggers with which Julius Caesar was murdered and a cap of liberty to symbolize the idea of the liberation of Rome from Caesar's rule. Lent by Michael Winckless Copyright of The Trustees of the British Museum.]

 
[Many thanks to the British Museum for providing me with the image above and other press materials related to Shakespeare: Staging the World, which runs through November 25, 2012.]

Who Killed the LA MoCA?

If “LA MoCA” sounds to you like something you’d order from Starbucks, than you probably don’t know anything about the recent kerfuffle surrounding what is being called the murder of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Like any great murder mystery, this one features plenty of high-profile suspects—some physically present, others purely metaphorically. The fact remains that the MoCA’s severely, if not fatally, wounded by the forced resignations of curators, subsequent resignations of artists on the board of trustees, bad reviews of questionably designed exhibitions, and the highly questionable conflicts of interest surrounding former (and possibly present by proxy) art dealer turned MoCA director Jeffrey Deitch. As sad as the current state of what was once known as “the artists’ museum” is, the real mourning is over whether this is just the first fatality in what might become a cultural serial murder. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Who Killed the LA MoCA?"