reviews, features & interviews
Casino Royale at the Barnes? Ed Sozanski lets out a little steam
By roberta
May 28, 2006 · 11 Comments
Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/28/2006 | Art | Yo, Diana! Rocky’s turn
Augustus St. Gaudens’ Diana at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Sozanski wants to see the Rocky statue go there instead.
Are we a little angry, Mr. Sozanski? Asking for a substitution of Rocky for Diana (see it bigger here) inside the Philadelphia Museum of Art and saying the museum could live with it if each Rocky visitor were paying the $12 admission fee is hostile beyond words.
And putting slots and a casino in the Barnes — and changing the slots’ whirling images from fruits to Renoirs and Cezannes for the sake of education — is likewise so funny I forgot to laugh.
Sheesh, maybe it’s the heat? This full dress assault on the PMA, the Barnes and the art world in general is so untempered I almost didn’t want to note it here on artblog. But buy gum Mr. Sozanski has a big readership and I’m sure many of the readers are laughing their heads off at the ideas expressed by him in this morning’s paper.
I’d love to hear other creative ideas for placing Rocky. Here’s mine: I’d like some institution –PMA, ICA, FPAA — to commission Stephan Balkenhol to carve a wooden Rocky to be sited mid-stream in the Delaware river as if he was walking on the water. That’s a Rocky statue I could live with. Here’s a project Balkenhol did in the Thames River in London in 1992. It could work here.
Tags: reviews, features & interviews
Well, excuse the art world, please, for happening to be part of the business world and the American culture. It’s not like American culture gave it any other options. Do you see the city or the state or the federal government ponying up enough money to support the Art Museum?
My personal approach to the Rocky sculpture will be to ignore it. But in the sense of public art having a role of representing how the commonweal chooses to see itself, Rocky fits the bill. Too bad it’s kitsch.
I love Ed Sozanski. I’d read a novel by him anytime. Does he know about The Odds of Ottopia or Leaving Obscurity Behind?–both set in Philadelphia with a whole cast of posthumous characters. For example, Saint Catherine de Ricci, Albert C. Barnes and Louis I. Kahn delivered the paper “The Bilocating Barnes Foundation” at last year’s Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club Convention.
In Ottopia the new Barnes Foundation looks like
this and this.
I felt my past post might be disrespectful to Stalone.
But a robotic rocky running across the water would still be nice.
Your idea of a bobbing Rocky on the water may be better though… eternal sways of victory.
Robo-Rocky, Ben, that’s a great idea. Like a hydrofoil skimming over the water. I like it. And Stephen, I love the idea of a sci-fi thriller with Albert Barnes and Louis Kahn set in Philadelphia–much finer than the DaVinci Code.
Make that unscience-fiction thrillers.
Why not take down Penn from atop City Hall and replace it with Rocky? I mean did Penn ever go head to head against Mr T or Billy Dee Williams? Does Penn have the “Eye of a Tiger”? I would go so far as to recommend placing a bronze cheesesteak or tastycake in his gloved fist, to really emphasize the blue-collar aspect of Philly”.
As for slots, seems a better place would be in 30th Street Station – there is a huge amount of unused space on the way to the bathrooms (since the Red Grooms was taken down). The money could be used to subsidize Amtrak.
ps. I answered the phones at PMA the first time this debate raged (back in 89) – there were soooo many people who called and expressed their anger that Rocky could not be placed at the head of the steps. Arguing that it was really a sculpture….
If he keeps leaning heavily over this curmudgeonly edge, Ed risks becoming like too many ranting older gentlemen; they get only chuckles and ignoring public…rendering them quaint, but ineffectual. And Philly doesn’t need any more ineffectual public figures.
geez, I dunno know.
I think Sozanski is a terrific critic, and you guys are lucky to have him. For a long time, he has had his eye on the local scene – and his writing (to me at least) is gracious, well informed and very generous.
So what if you don’t always agree – he’s got us all in a dialogue about something (civic matter, art or otherwise), which is what I always thought great art writing was supposed to do.
I don’t think Sozanski was being all that serious. I mean I do think he was irritated, but really, he was quite funny. My first comment was more sarcastic than the original piece of writing merited.
I guess I see the review as a criticism of the art decision makers in Philadelphia. Is it the best way to add to the cultural foundation of the region to accept what is regarded as a commercial for a movie or not. I find it strange that movies are sometimes seen as art and other times seen as entertainment. They may share some of the same attributes but the meaning is far apart. The Rocky statue is nothing more than a large “action figure”, the same that can be purchased in any toy store. Because of the scale and the material it seems like art. All one has to do is walk down the Parkway a few blocks to see what real art looks like, at the Rodin Museum.
The debate should be about who is qualified to make cultural decisions in Philadelphia. Does the tourist commission have the expertise to judge art or not?
You gotta check out the latest museum peice on display at museumpeace.blogspot.com