Absolutely astonishing

Wall animation from Italian artist Blu

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In the 'Tuymans Experiment', Luc Tuymans (widely hailed as one of the most important artists in the world - e.g. the Tate Modern's description here, and the curators describing him in the first minute of the video above) decided to radically shift the context of his art. He reproduced one of his most famous paintings on a wall in Antwerp, to see how people responded to it. Curators predicted 90% of passerbys would stop and contemplate. In fact, just 4% stopped. A painting that in a gallery makes close to 100% of people stop and think for a few minutes, and appreciate the art for the thoughts it made them explore and the new ways of seeing something that it gives them, was remarkably valueless when transposed from the art gallery walls to a street wall. Context turned a 'million dollar' picture with the power to influence people and the way they think, into a vulgar paint daub on an alleyway wall ignored by 96% of people passing by. There are vast ramifications to this point; I would love to hear your suggestions in the comments below. When I watched this video this morning, here are some other stories...

Urban artists think big

There's been a spate of big works hitting urban walls recently. Here's a quick roundup: Conor Harrington - Shoreditch: Fauxreel (Dan Bergeron) - Toronto Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada - IDENTITY/Madrid and last but certainly not least - JR (the guy who put huge murals on the Palestinian security wall) - Tate Modern and Lexington St ...

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 12:57 am and is filed under Culture bucket. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.