I was going to apologize for this being a “lazy” post because it’s mainly photos but then I remembered that photography is a legitimate art form. So I withdraw the apology that I have not offered. If you’ll allow me a moment of bloated egoism, I think some of these pics are fetching.
Winter approaches and it’s time to bid adieu to outdoor art exhibits. I love the monstrosities that some artists create and I’ll miss them. Here are the last two works until spring.
Our old pal Jeff Koons will be selling another balloon animal at Christie’s fall contemporary art auction. This time, it’s Balloon Monkey (Orange), estimated to sell for $20,000,000-$30,000,000.
It doesn’t look much like a monkey at all, whereas his balloon dogs look like…well…dogs.
Before each auction, they hold free previews in the gallery. If a show of that caliber opened at MoMA, the line would stretch down 54th Street to 5th Avenue. I don’t understand why more people don’t take advantage.
This isn’t the first Koons sculpture to appear in front of Christie’s Rockefeller Center location. A while back, there was a balloon dog and some tulips.
Admiring the art deco frieze.
Selfie!
I like the reactions. Tourists and New Yorkers alike scrunch their faces into fists of incomprehension. Can you blame them? The real fun starts when they see the auction estimate. I find these pieces tremendous fun but am depressed that someone would (and could) pay that kind of money for something like this. Rich people are certifiably insane. It’s a FACT.
Another day at the office.
Cop scopes bad asses and robbers.
I’ll follow-up with my semi-annual auction post in mid-November. Y’all come back now! Ya hear?
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This piece is in the plaza at Lincoln Center. It’s in front of the fountains.
I had to double-up on my pics because the exposures were so different. Due to the inherent limitations of my iPhone, I could only take a picture of the image on the screen OR the plaza, but not both simultaneously. I think each result is equally interesting.
Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014, by Irish artist John Gerrard, is giant LED wall that re-creates a Nevada solar thermal power plant and the surrounding desert.
The image situates the sun, moon and stars as they would appear at the actual Nevada site over the course of a year. The view slowly morphs from ground to satellite image every 60 minutes. The view is constantly, albeit, very slowly, changing throughout the course of the exhibit. It might be more interesting if they sped up the movement a bit. You don’t see much change just standing there.
Interesting aside: That sign you see at the bottom are LED lights embedded into the steps leading up to the Plaza. There’s a whole series of them. They scroll upcoming Lincoln Center events and the word “welcome” in multiple languages.
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My colleague at work saw The Ramones at Vassar when she was a teenager. I’d pay a significant amount of money to watch The Ramones play in front of an audience of Vassar co-eds. Who wouldn’t?
Exile on Pain Street 
I can’t get into Koons. It’s too glossy and superficial. It doesn’t say anything to me.
I’m surprised the City puts art pieces which fetch 30 million a time out into the street. It’s a great idea but a bit risky I’d have thought.
Koons’ work certainly isn’t practical. I’ll give you that much. Where are you going to put something like that?! It’s ridiculous.
It’s funny…I thought the EXACT SAME THING about leaving them out in the open with just a few security guards milling about looking like they couldn’t care less. And here’s the kicker…this piece will remain outside, 24/7, until the auction in mid-November. What’s to prevent someone from taking a hammer to it?
Well, I might not like the artwork much but it hope it all survives till then. No doubt you’ll be back with the actual prices, for us to shake our heads at.
OK, definitely head turning – but once your head is turne what is the message? Personally I don’t see a message. Oh, well, I don’t have the millions either so I guess that’s good.
Thanks for the look see Mark. Cool post, but I don’t think I’ll be buying one of the artworks anythime soon.
But if you had the money, and a gigantic estate with acres of lawn, would you but it? If money was no object, would you? I might! Or something similar.
It is interesting but, to me, not “deep” enough to spend that kind of money on, if I had the money. Too much sameness. The only reason I would see anyone buying such an installment would be as an investment on the assumption that it would appreciate on vaue. I’ve seen metal scuptures that are detailed and eye-catching. If I had the money and the estate i could see myself investing in something like that, something that caught my interest.
I think that’s proof positive that your sane. Congratulation. That was kind of a test. But I was serious about me buying it. That’s proof poditive of something else but I won’t get into it.
Ha! Just fall back on the investment aspect – using money to make money via whatever means possible. Always a winning argument for sanity in our society.
I think many of these purchases are just that: investments that have nothing whatsoever to do with artistic merit.
Oh, as an aside Mark , I recently wrote a couple of guest posts and I’d be delighted if you could find the time to drop by for a read: one is at Cordelia’s Mom http://cordeliasmomstill.com/2014/11/06/serendipity-guest-post-by-paul-curran/ and the other at Mindful Digressions http://mindfuldigressions.com/2014/11/06/of-breasts-and-bananas/?c=20767 Thanks so much Mark.
“Fetching” is such a fine, under-used word. And good Thursday morning to you.
I like to resurrect the old, little-used words. Look for “davenport” I’m my next post.
Top-o-the morn’ to you, as well.
There’s a lot of phallic imagery in this post…! Or am I just tired?
I often use the word ‘fetching’… a Brit thing?
Sx
Any phallic imagery is purely unintentional and entirely in the eye of the beholder.
I also like to work ‘brilliant,’ ‘as well’ and ‘smashing’ into my vernacular in order to sound more Britich. I was born on the wrong continent and in the wrong era.
Did you know ‘smashing’ comes from the Irish ‘Is maith sin’ (meaning ‘that is good’), and pronounced, well, ‘smashin’!? 😉
My favourite is “chuffed”. I don’t use it enough in my daily speech, methinks. 🙂
By the way I seem to be challenged to comment on your blog anywhere except on my computer. The wordpress app doesn’t like me talking to you. So apologies for the absence. I’m here, reading, always.
I had to “approve” this comment! I wonder why? It’s not as though you’ve never commented here before. What’s my blog trying to tell me? What’s the harm?
I forgot about “chuffed.” That’s a good one although, admittedly, I’m not quite sure what the proper pronunciation is. Does it start with the “ch” sound or is it a hard “k?”
So we are trying to make “fetching” happen now?
Yeah, the monkey isn’t my cuppa tea. Give me millions of dollars and the place for one of the balloon dogs or snakes, then we’re talking!
I used it first. Feel free to adapt but I want credit.
If you think THIS is comical wait ’til you see what else is for sale. Hint: Pink Panther embracing porno actress.
ABVFKFKGKGKGKGKDKSKAKEME
That monkey should be a porn star. Speaking of which, wasn’t Koons once married to La Cicciolina? Why isn’t she a work of art worth 30 million bucks? Admittedly she’ll deterioriate more quickly than that monkey, but at least she moves around and says funny stuff.
He WAS married to her and appeared in many of his pieces, including the Pink Panther piece mentioned above. I think she became a politician. Big difference.
Love the pictures — a true art form. And I don’t even have to pay $1 mill for them! (The rich are certifiable — $30 M????? It’s just not that much fun)
Thanks, very much. As it says below my banner, there’s never a fee. I bring it for free.
Do you think that amount of cash would corrupt you you so much that you’d buy stupid things? It might do a number on me, sorry to admit.
I think it would make me buy many stupid things. But I don’t think I’d lump them all into one HUGE stupid purchase. OF course, I could be wrong!
Stupid is relative. As far as I am concerned, paying $800 for a pair of shoes qualifies as a huge stupid purchase.
Yes, I agree. But it’s still not as stupid as paying $30 million for an over-sized balloon animal!
You’re right. Stupid may be relative but within stupid itself, there are different degrees of stupidity. Balloon Monkey pretty much wins the prize.
I now think that the clowns hired to make balloon animals at kids’ birthday parties are a tad underpaid, Mark. 20 to 30 mill for that stuff. Like you, the money part of it takes whatever artistry might be hiding out in the way back away for me.
How many of the Vassar co-eds took ’em up the song and got sedated?
The money part, oddly enough, doesn’t spoil the fun for me. In some strange way, it adds to the carnival atmosphere. It’s too strange to take seriously.
Vassar is the LEAST likely
venue for The Ramones. Talk about a carnival!
I saw them when I was a student at U of Maryland, and they stuck them in the oldest gym possible, and I loved it. Kegs o beer and the Ramones on a May night. Awesome.
That’s a great brag. I’d keep that one in my back pocket for when someone wants to go nuclear with Led Zep or the original Who or someone like that.
Those sculptures are wonderful. I first read this post on my phone earlier today because I’m traveling, but I couldn’t see the pics well. Now I’m on my iPad and can see them better. That’s the kind of fun art I enjoy. I suppose I shouldn’t admit that…
I am totally with you on the fun aspect! The fact that it’ll sell north of $20M is kind of obscene but that doesn’t take away the fact that it’s a blast. I’ve always got my guard up against art that is TOO SERIOUS. That’s why I like Warhol. That guy knew how to have a good time and so does Koons.
Yeah, $20 mill is pushing things a bit.
i don’t get it *shrug* but then, there seems to be a shit ton of stuff i don’t get anymore …
There is nothing to get, my dear. You either like it or you don’t. Simple as that. Hope you’re well. Happy Halloween!
I like the balloon animal sculptures. It’s a lot like The Bean in Chicago where you can see cool distorted reflections of things in it and take pics of them.
Seeing the Bean is on my to-do list. I’ve never seen a bad photo of it. That thing is the epitome of what constitutes a successful public instillation.
i hope the monkey is purchased by someone who lives west of me on Interstate 70. i would LOVE to see that li’l fella being hauled on an oversize flatbed trailer across town…
I can’t think of a better place to display something like that than the middle of a cornfield. Imagine how surreal it would look. It would cause multiple pile-ups, but it might be worth it.
I want to live inside your posts, the crazy balloon animals and all. By the way, I would totally buy that if I was rich, and then I would likely try to fly it out of a skyscraper, cause drunk and high…
My posts represent the more interesting aspects of my existence. Fortunately for you readers, I leave out the abject horror of my day-to-day grind.
I have a feeling my grind has something in common with yours (not to sound too dirty or anything), but my high points seem somehow less uplifting…
Photographs the lazy way out? Not in my neck of the woods. Some days it’s a flippin’ miracle.
You should be commended.
I know you are something of Anglophile – you may like my latest post which is nothing if not British.
What did Rod Steward say? Every picture tells a story? Okay, then. We can save ourselves a lot of time if we’d just reduce all our posts to lovely photographs.
Calling me “something” of an Anglophile is like accusing water of being wet. I’ll be right over.
Please let us know who actually buys it. I find it weird. Prices that high are just sort of like astronomy facts to me. Like light years and distant galaxies. I’m not entirely sure it’s real at all, my brain can’t comprehend it.
You’ve spoiled the surprise! I was hoping you didn’t see this post. That’s what I’m getting you for your wedding. Don’t tell Alex. Act surprised when the truck arrives.
Hahahaha!!!
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