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Claes Oldenburg

Art

The World’s Most Romantic Public Art

By Judy Berman on

There’s nothing more romantic than a stroll with the one you love — and since it’s been an unseasonably warm February in many places, you might be able to manage one this Valentine’s Day without freezing to death in your companion’s arms. As long as you’re outdoors, you’ll score points with your beloved (and spend exactly $0) if you plan your walk around a particularly romantic piece of public art. In case you’re strapped for inspiration, we’ve collected some of the best love-inspired specimens, past and present, from around the world, and our finds range from the dreamy to the outright bizarre. Claes Oldenburg’s Cupid’s Span in San Francisco, Jenny Holzer’s provocative projections, and, of course, Robert Indiana’s Love await you after the jump. … Read More

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Art

Take a Cross-Country Public Art Road Trip

By Rozalia Jovanovic on

With Rob Pruitt’s sleek monument to Andy Warhol recently unveiled in Union Square and Sol Lewitt’s modular structures being installed in City Hall Park (both installations are presented by New York’s Public Art Fund), we’ve been contemplating innovative art that’s accessible outside the traditional context of museums and galleries. In the coming weeks as you take to city streets, benches, park lawns, (and garages!) keep an eye out for what’s going up around you. That skeletal advertising billboard may not be an actual advertising billboard but one of three works by artist Kim Beck. In celebration of Beck, Lewitt, Pruitt and other artists whose work is on public display this spring, take a virtual road trip with us from New York to Seattle to explore some of the most exciting works, both recently unveiled or well-renowned, in some Flavorpill cities. … Read More

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Art

10 Works of Art That Look Good Enough to Eat

By Judy Berman on

We sure hope someone is making Wayne Thiebaud one hell of a birthday cake. The artist, who turns 90 today, is known for his paintings of delicious-looking food. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s café is commemorating the event with a special Thiebaud-inspired menu, which will of course feature edible versions of his world-famous cakes. Since we’re stuck on the East Coast, we’ll have to celebrate in our own way, with this round up of high-art food porn, including delectable works by everyone from Manet and Gauguin to Ralph Goings and Will Cotton. … Read More

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Art

Lucas Samaras Does a Striptease for His Art-World Friends

By Paul Laster on

The centerpiece of his exhibition Paraxena in the Greek Pavilion in Venice, Lucas Samaras’ video installation Ecdysiast and Viewers is a curious work of art. Continuing his fascination with narcissism and voyeurism, the 5½-minute presents 24 iMovie films of individuals recorded as they respond to the iMovie film Ecdysiast (a term supposedly coined by H.L. Mencken to describe Gypsy Rose Lee) that shows a distorted view of Samaras… Read More

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Art

Pure Madness: MoMA’s Martin Kippenberger Retrospective

By Jessica Loudis on

The text panel prefacing The Problem Perspective, the first major U.S. retrospective of German artist Martin Kippenberger, opens with a quote from Aristotle: “everything in moderation.” It then continues with the following statement: “Martin Kippenberger never got this message.”

Curatorial assistance or not, it doesn’t take long to pick up on the Dionysian overtones of Kippenberger’s work. At the entrance to The Problem Perspective an oat-covered Ford Capri peeks out into the foyer (a nudge to Anselm Kiefer) and continuing through the exhibit, the viewer passes by drunken street lamps (which unlike sober ones weave in and out of walls) deprecating self-portraits, and a junkie’s forest populated by disco balls, wooden pills, and ominously headless birch trees. … Read More

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