That’s no ‘Bean.’ It’s the ‘Blade’
Howdy, Chicago, Molly Glentzer here, the Houston Chronicle’s art critic.
We’ve been missing you, thinking maybe it’s time to mend our differences. So we just wanted to let you know we’re feeling kind of chill now about this whole hill of “Bean” thingies.
To show we are harboring no hard feelings after all the trouble you stirred up a few days ago on account of our Anish Kapoor sculpture and so much else, apparently, we are happy to share that our monumental artworks no longer have to compete!
Little matters of population dominance and such may be out of our control. But this sculpture war is easily solved. I know this because I have actually stood next to ours, and I guarantee you it looks nothing like yours.
Here’s the deal: You keep “the Bean.” From here on out, I am calling ours “the Blade.”
Sounds kind of bad boy, doesn’t it? More Ridley Scott than legume. And appropriate for Space City, since our sculpture looks like some kind of alien space capsule. Although ‘Blade’ could also refer to grass. Did you know that Houston has become one of the greenest cities in America? We won’t tell Anish if you don’t.
By the way, did you know he’s not the only sculptor our streets have in common?
Jean Dubuffet’s “Monument au Fantome” appeared in Houston about 20 years after Chicago got Dubuffet’s “Monument with Standing Beast.” Kudos to you on that one. They’re from the same series and pretty close cousins, although ours is more colorful. Sorry about that; couldn’t resist.
Since we last spoke, we’ve weathered a little internal flap about our parks department recreating a temporary piece they commissioned five years ago from Konstantin Dimopolous, the “Blue Trees” guy. Only this time the trees are green. So, take heart: We didn’t just copy you: We copied ourselves! Head spinning. And really, this whole silly Bean War thing could have been avoided if artists didn’t repeat themselves so much. Multiples are a tradition, of course, but a real conundrum, although they do give art geeks stuff to geek out over when they are writing their dissertations.
Sculpture is especially troublesome when it’s huge and expensive and maybe bronze or steel, and the artist doesn’t physically sweat over the actual sculpting himself, because he has a foundry or some other kind of fabricator for that. These multiples really look exactly alike.
People visit Houston all the time to view Barnett Newman’s “Broken Obelisk” outside the Rothko Chapel, thinking they’re seeing something unique. But Newman (well, Newman’s guys, actually) made three of those; the others are indoors at MoMA and the University of Washington in Seattle, where they don’t have to be repaired every decade or so.
In that vein, has any sculpture been reproduced as much as Robert Indiana’s “Love” piece, which was selfie-bait even before there were selfies? We don’t have one, but New York does, and the original is in Kansas, of all places. Wikipedia counts 20 versions of “Love” in the U.S. alone and says they’re scattered all over the world. Just wow.
Did you know there are 38 full-size casts of Auguste Rodin’s “Thinker”? And don’t get us started on James Turrell’s skyspaces. Heck, even Austin has one of those.
So, how’s the weather up there? Warmly, Molly