Assault on Art

Today’s
review of the Fine Arts eloquently essays the state of the arts in
modern American culture. Of course, decrying the
dearth of appreciation for the classics is the prerogatives of crusty
curmudgeons and aging academics, but when the art itself is endangered,
we all stand
to lose.

Maybe if 12-year-olds and the happy hour crowd don’t usually go
to art museums, there is a reason, and maybe it is for the mutual protection
of both parties……

DETROIT (Reuters) – Painter Helen Frankenthaler’s landmark abstract
work "The Bay" just got a little more abstract — to the dismay
of Detroit museum officials.

A 12-year-old boy visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts with his school
group on Friday stuck a wad of chewing gum on the painting, which is
worth an estimated $1.5 million, the Detroit Free Press said.

The barely chewed Wrigley’s Extra Polar Ice gum left a residue stain
about the size of a quarter in the lower left-hand corner of the painting,
the newspaper said.

from Reuters

Martinifest Degenerates in Museum

A party at a US art museum got out
of hand after the organizers promised revelers as many martinis as they
could
drink.

The martini fete at at Milwaukee Art Museum ended with drunk guests passing
out, throwing up and clambering over artworks.

One reveler, Kathleen Christians, 39, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "It
was crazy. People were shoving people over. People were getting sick,
screaming, shouting, messing with the artwork."

Four young men climbed onto Standing Woman, a tall, bronze sculpture
of a goddess-like woman by early 20th-century American artist Gaston
Lachaise.

from Ananova

Or maybe it just means if you give away hard liquor in a beer town,
cover the rugs and hide the silver….