The Public Coloring Book
The Sacramento Kings basketball team recently revealed a new commissioned public art piece. This eight million dollar sculpture was created by well-known artist Jeff Koons, and to be set in front on the stadium. The sculpture is an eighteen-foot high, mirrored stainless steel sculpture is titled, Coloring Book and is a multicolored piglet shape. This piece was approved to be placed in the Golden 1 Center in early 2015, which caused a big controversy amongst many.
The community of Sacramento and local based artists voiced their opinions about the piece by starting a social media campaign on Instagram and Twitter. Many felt that Coloring Book was not an accurate representation for the Kings or Sacramento. According to Artnet.com, a local artist named David Garibaldi had stated, “Why are we buying what could be created here? This is our opportunity to make a statement to the world that our arts are as important as our sports. We are creative and competitive.” If I were in his position I would definitely be bothered by the fact that the city of Sacramento is paying eight million dollars for an artwork that doesn’t even necessarily fit in with the overall aesthetic of sports or the location. Garibaldi is clearly upset and feels like he was stripped of his opportunity to create for his own city.
It is clear that the negative feelings towards this famous and wealthy artist’s piece ultimately come from a personal perspective of how the artwork makes the audience feel. It is about the viewer’s perceptions. I truly believe that the audience decides for themselves how they are going to feel about the work based on their personal experiences, likes, and dislikes. Whether it is a subconscious opinion or not, it is ultimately the viewer’s personal taste which will determine their thoughts. For example, another individual posted on twitter regarding the choice of Koons’ work and said, “It’s also sad when this piece of “Art” looks like a bunch of dicks pointing in the air!” This is an example of someone who is clearly not interested in having an open mind about contemporary art and willing to speak negatively, most likely not taking any time what so ever to try to appreciate it or the positive effect that it can have on the community.
Another factor that is important to consider about public art is that not everyone is going to appreciate the work and ultimately the artist and the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission need to be aware, and at peace with that. You will never be able to make everyone happy but when it comes to artwork in a public space shared with the community, things can get tricky. In the article, “Jeff Koons Public Sculpture Spurs Viral Online Protest”, another unhappy individual was quoted saying, “I feel like they are shopping for art with other people’s money, and not asking their opinion of it…Commissioning Koons is like saying “oh NYC has art like this, we need this”, or “they have an expensive purse, I need that too”. This is interesting because there seems to already be such a harsh judgment of Koons in general since he is a famous, extremely wealthy and successful contemporary artist. Art is so subjective and if public art was truly based on whether or not the whole community liked and approved of it, then there would absolutely be no public art in this world.
