It is a rebellious breed of artist who invites spectators to view their work at face-level – figuratively and literally off the pedestal of art world appreciation and valuation. The glass cases and roped-in enclosures housing and protecting famous works signify historical importance, fragility and cost of conservation – and the danger that grubby-fingered visitors pose to them. Low-hanging art doesn’t guarantee a Dollarama price tag, but it might mean that we’ll try to pick it up and carry it around with us for a bit.
Image via TFIOT
On display on a short mirrored platform in the theatre lobby of the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas, Jeff Koon’s Tulips recently fetched over $33 million at auction and is monitored by beefy guards. Our fingerprints are all over that shiz.
Today, guests are able to actually walk through Donald Judd’s studio at 101 Spring St. in Soho, a reclaimed monument to life lived among artworks and architecture. We tried not to leave a mark.
Uptown at the MoMA, a retrospective for the sculpture of Claes Oldenburg reflects his witty appreciation for everyday objects – like tin cans, teacakes and sausages – not out of reach of the average museum goer. In fact, he’d stated, “I’d like to get away from the notion of a work of art as something outside of experience, something that is located in museums, something that is terribly precious,”
Image via MoMA
One particularly accessible piece in the Oldenburg exhibit has been carried out to New York from its place in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Two young, impressionable, burger-eyed cheeseheads (us truly at TFIOT) saw Floor Burger for the first time here – one of the most memorable art works we’ve ever seen up close made it to the MoMA! As it happens when art is placed so close to the ground: you could say it really touched us, or that we really touched it.
thefoodisoutthere 