Wednesday, March 08, 2006

The Porcupine takes on office art

It occurred to me the other day, as I was standing around at work, chatting with Pinky, that I don't need to go to galleries or museums for material to write about, when art is all around us. It's on every floor, in every hallway, and near every elevator. Yes, it's time to finally examine office art.

At first, I was concerned that documenting this aspect of my office would compromise its anonymity here. But then I looked around again at the bland walls and decided, who am I kidding? This place is unidentifiable. (A European concern might actually spend a couple of bucks on interior design. But not here. They just replaced the 1980s-era carpeting. Which was green.)

And so, this will be a series of posts about any piece of art that I think has something to say, even if it says more about the art buyer's budget than anything else (think lots of prints). Pinky claims that a certain downtown firm owns (and displays) something by Jeff Koons, which strikes me as an instance of corporate ballsiness that borders on the mythological, so I am hoping for photographic evidence.

1 comment:

Porcupine said...

Morgan, thanks for your thoughtful comments! I am so glad that someone is reading this blog (other than friends and family, that is – and some of them I have to poke every once in a while). The idea of critiquing office art started out as a joke, mostly because this particular collection dates from the 1970s and 80s, and some of it hasn’t aged well. But when I did a little research, I was humbled to find out that these artists were quite accomplished, and their life stories were touching. I also felt that gratuitous criticism would be irresponsible. I am familiar with your listing – let’s link away!