Royal Academy Summer Show: The Empty Plinth
Friday June 16, 2006
The scenario: you're a sculptor, you submit a work (a sculpture of a laughing head on a slate plinth) to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, to your delight it gets accepted. On preview night you head to London, walk around all excited, only to discover just the plinth and the piece of wood meant to keep the head in place on display....
David Hensel’s One Day Closer to Paradise had apparently got separated in transit and was mistakenly judged as two separate pieces. The Times newspaper quotes one of judges as saying "he thought it was a good example of minimalist art. 'It’s a quirky little piece ... We were quite puzzled by it and that’s why we liked it.'" Hensel is quoted as saying: "It has become art because it was chosen by these eminent artists." But the best quote comes from an Academy spokeswoman, who said the plinth could remain as it is or be withdrawn: "The head was rejected. It wasn’t deemed worthy. Only the base was thought to merit inclusion."
Writing in The Guardian, Mark Lawson says "Mistaking a plinth for the artwork just proves that art is what we see, not what the artist makes ... There is nothing absurd about the idea that Hensel's sculpture became more appealing and intriguing to some people when half of it got left in a cupboard". Mmm, while I can appreciate this argument, I just can't stop laughing at the whole incident. Learn more about painting from About's Painting Guide.
Read News Reports:
• London Times
• The Independent
• BBC News
• The Guardian (Sam Jones)
• The Guardian (Mark Lawson)
David Hensel’s One Day Closer to Paradise had apparently got separated in transit and was mistakenly judged as two separate pieces. The Times newspaper quotes one of judges as saying "he thought it was a good example of minimalist art. 'It’s a quirky little piece ... We were quite puzzled by it and that’s why we liked it.'" Hensel is quoted as saying: "It has become art because it was chosen by these eminent artists." But the best quote comes from an Academy spokeswoman, who said the plinth could remain as it is or be withdrawn: "The head was rejected. It wasn’t deemed worthy. Only the base was thought to merit inclusion."
Writing in The Guardian, Mark Lawson says "Mistaking a plinth for the artwork just proves that art is what we see, not what the artist makes ... There is nothing absurd about the idea that Hensel's sculpture became more appealing and intriguing to some people when half of it got left in a cupboard". Mmm, while I can appreciate this argument, I just can't stop laughing at the whole incident. Learn more about painting from About's Painting Guide.
Read News Reports:
• London Times
• The Independent
• BBC News
• The Guardian (Sam Jones)
• The Guardian (Mark Lawson)
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