Category:
Art

Beer can art mistaken for trash

A recent case of art mistaken for trash. Details from Artnet news:

The LAM museum in Lisse, the Netherlands,... recently found one of its artworks in the trash, accidentally thrown out by an elevator technician who mistook it for garbage.

At first glance, Alexandre Lavet’s All the good times we spent together by (2016) appear to be a pair of empty beer cans, drunk and discarded, one slightly crushed. But closer inspection reveals that these weren’t regular beer cans—and Lavet is no readymade artist.

Instead, he meticulously hand painted the cans, creating two perfect replicas of cans of Jupiler beer. Lavet intended the piece as a tribute to memories of good times spent with friends.

The worker responsible for throwing out the art was filling in for the museum’s regular technician. That meant he wasn’t familiar with the works in the museum’s collection, which it advertises as the world’s largest museum collection of food art.

He also probably didn’t realize that the LAM museum takes delight in stashing artworks in unexpected, unconventional places. All the good times was behind glass, but not in a traditional vitrine. Instead, it could be seen inside the elevator shaft, as if it had been left behind by construction workers’ knocking off after their shifts.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 09, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Art

The Ghost Parking Lot of Hamden, Connecticut

The "Ghost Parking Lot" was the 1978 creation of artist/architect James Wines. It consisted of twenty cars, placed in a mall parking lot, then buried to varying degrees, and finally covered with tarmac.

image source: sitenewyork.com



Torrance Daily Breeze - June 1, 1978



Wines explained: "this fusion of typically mobile artifacts with their environment takes advantage of people’s subliminal connections with the rituals of shopping center merchandising and the fetishism of American car culture."

But over the years the tarmac peeled off the cars and no repairs were made. So in 2003 the city decided to remove the cars. They were replaced by a Starbucks drive-thru. Wines commented, "If (the sculpture) was in a museum, it would've been preserved."

More info: sitenewyork.com

Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 08, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Art, 1970s, Cars

Extended Credentials

Identity theft as art. Jay Lee Jaroslav created 31 fictitious identities, backed up by official documentation such as birth certificates and social security numbers. He used the info of individuals who had died as infants as the basis for constructing these identities. To make this all seem more art-like, he turned the 31 applications for birth certificates into paintings.

He never used these identities to do anything illegal. His point seemed to be to demonstrate that it could be done.

More info: jayleejaroslav.wordpress.com

Umbrella - May 1979



Jaroslav's birth-certificate application paintings on display

Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 22, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Art, Identity Mistakes, Thefts and Mix-ups

The art collection of the British Rail Pension Fund

Fine art and British Rail may not seem like they have much in common, but for several decades British Rail, through its pension fund, was a major player in the world of fine art. From the
NY Times (Apr 5, 1989):


Between 1974 and 1981, British Rail became Britain's first (and it is believed only) large pension fund to enter the collectibles market, acquiring more than $70 million worth of paintings, prints, drawings, furniture and other top-flight works to supplement more conventional investments as a hedge against inflation, which was extremely high in Britain at the time.

The pension fund began selling its art in 1986, and sold the last of it in 2003.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 1996 that the pension fund made a return of 13.1% per year on its art. Which doesn't seem bad at all. However, its stock portfolio, during the same period, returned 22% a year.

If you're looking for a coffee-table curiosity, there are several books dedicated to the artwork owned by the British Rail pension fund.

More info: "When a railway fund started buying paintings"



Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 20, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Art, Money, Collectors

Subversive Coca-Cola Bottles

In 1965, thousands of sealed Coca-Cola bottles containing "subversive bulletins" were found floating off the coast of the Northern Celebes.

Miami Herald - July 30, 1965



I can't find any information about who was responsible for this strange act of subversion. But it recalls a later subversive use of Coca-Cola bottles by the Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles.

It was during the 1970s when used glass bottles would be returned and refilled. Meireles would modify the bottles before returning them by adding white text on the side showing messages such as "Yankees Go Home" or instructions for turning the bottle into a Molotov cocktail.

As the bottle progressively empties of dark brown liquid, the statement printed in white letters on a transparent label adhering to its side becomes increasingly invisible, only to reappear when the bottle is refilled for recirculation.

More info: Beach Branding and Packaging Design

Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 07, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Art, Soda, Pop, Soft Drinks and other Non-Alcoholic Beverages, 1960s, 1970s

New Hoover Deluxe Shampoo Polishers

Jeff Koons's 1987 "sculpture" is titled "New Hoover Deluxe Shampoo Polishers, New Shelton Wet/Dry 5-Gallon Displaced Quadradecker." It consists of a stack of six shampoo polishers and one wet/dry vacuum.

I wonder if the work was inspired in any way by the persistent weird news theme of 'art mistaken as trash.' Instead of art that resembles trash, Koons imagined cleaning supplies as art.

Yeah, I'm probably overthinking this.

New Hoover Deluxe Shampoo Polishers, New Shelton Wet/Dry 5-Gallon Displaced Quadradecker
image source: wikiart

Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 12, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Art, 1980s

Follies of the Madmen #602

Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 09, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Art, Domestic, Hygiene, Advertising, Historical Figure, 1960s

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