Post by Sid Sachs
Sid Sachs, Director of Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Uarts faculty (and friend of artblog whose mind is always ruminating in interesting places) was provoked by my post on Ann Northrup’s mural. Specifically by this: “the head of the Mural Arts Program, Jane Golden, was in Vietnam helping that government launch a mural program and how great it was that she was bringing her successful experience here to other parts of the world.”
In response Sid wrote a free verse rant that raises a lot of issues about murals, and the city’s arts and culture institutions and the future direction of the city.
PUULLEEAASSE! Cease and desist! We don’t need another illustration in our fair city. Nor does Vietnam need a mural cancer from us (an irony because much of Golden’s aesthetic was forged by Eva Cockcroft who wrote about the Cuban and Latino tradition of murals. Left via Politically Correct.)
What we do need is peace.
What we need is grace.
What we need is kindness.
No killing – here or in Iraq.
We don’t need people slaughtered for IPods.
We need education at the highest level.
We need beautiful architecture.
We need mass transit.
We need waterfronts on both rivers.
We don’t need casinos. (Are there casinos in New York?)
We have no money nor time to lose.
We don’t need wifi – the revolution will not be televised.
We need a monument to Anne d’Harnoncourt in the building of the Frank Gehry wing ASAP. We miss her.
We need another lovely genius.
We need to shake people up.
We don’t need to be embarrassed.
We are not the Sixth Borough.
We need major monuments and high art and dedication to life.
We need ideas.
We need to let Robert Venturi build on Washington Square.
We don’t need greed.
We don’t need Symphony House.
We applaud Mr. Fuhrman’s generosity (free admission to ICA!).
We applaud David Pincus and our new Di Suvero.
All museums should be free.
We don’t give a Tut about Pirates!
We don’t give a fig about Rocky (though Stallone was good in Copland).
We don’t care about blockbusters.
We don’t care about sharing mediocre ideas.
We don’t care about mass production.
We don’t care about murals(unless they are in Padua, Rome, Sienna ).
Our Murals are billboards.
Where are our Rothkos?
