My wife and I recently visited the new Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) museum, a spectacular cantilevered building overlooking Boston harbor. We spent at least 45 minutes waiting in a serpentine line of neo-hippies to pay an outrageous price (I think $12 @ plus expensive parking) to view, at best, a sparse and mediocre exhibit of “modern art” that rivaled the Rhode Island School of Design’s students’ exhibit in its schmaltzy glitz. (Note: the RISDI museum’s other standing exhibits, however, are well worth the entrance fee.)
The “highlight” of ICA’s current exhibits is the “Obey” section of graphic posters by “street artist,” Shepard Fairey, an iconoclast in the Andy Warhol genre from Los Angeles. See Shepard Fairey . Fairey is best known for his Andre the Giant posters and stickers (first created when he was at RISDI) and his recent “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama. This section is housed in 4 or 5 ICA exhibit halls and includes many posters filled with vitriol (greedy capitalism, George Bush as Satan) or adoration (Che Guevara, Angela Davis, Obama). These posters are so politically polarizing that it is difficult to judge their true artistic worth. However, grudgingly, they do show a modicum of creativity along with clever use of replicated computer-generated graphics.
But, I must also admit that I also foster an obsessive urge to return to the ICA with a few cans of spray paint hidden under my coat and tag many of Fairey’s more outrageous posters with my own political messages. I would continue this civil disobedience until I was hauled away in cuffs to spend the rest of my life in a Cambridge, MA gulag.
Closing observations:
- Of the many hundreds of attendees at this museum, we saw only one person of color (plenty of Asians though.) Strange?
- If you must visit ICA, spend some time sitting on the benches overlooking the serene Boston harbor (just before the “Obey” section). It will steel you for what is to come.
The “highlight” of ICA’s current exhibits is the “Obey” section of graphic posters by “street artist,” Shepard Fairey, an iconoclast in the Andy Warhol genre from Los Angeles. See Shepard Fairey . Fairey is best known for his Andre the Giant posters and stickers (first created when he was at RISDI) and his recent “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama. This section is housed in 4 or 5 ICA exhibit halls and includes many posters filled with vitriol (greedy capitalism, George Bush as Satan) or adoration (Che Guevara, Angela Davis, Obama). These posters are so politically polarizing that it is difficult to judge their true artistic worth. However, grudgingly, they do show a modicum of creativity along with clever use of replicated computer-generated graphics.
But, I must also admit that I also foster an obsessive urge to return to the ICA with a few cans of spray paint hidden under my coat and tag many of Fairey’s more outrageous posters with my own political messages. I would continue this civil disobedience until I was hauled away in cuffs to spend the rest of my life in a Cambridge, MA gulag.
Closing observations:
- Of the many hundreds of attendees at this museum, we saw only one person of color (plenty of Asians though.) Strange?
- If you must visit ICA, spend some time sitting on the benches overlooking the serene Boston harbor (just before the “Obey” section). It will steel you for what is to come.
1 comment:
I guess some people just don't "get" contemporary art :-)
I didn't like the exhibit either, but we went on a Thursday night (free admission after 5PM) and parked on the street for $1.00)
Next time just drop the wife off and wait at the sports bar adjacent to the parking lot.
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