Anxiety of Influence, Life-Size Train Version


Jeff Koons' proposed $25 million steel and aluminum Train for LACMA (rendering, above left) bears some striking similarities to Scottish artist George Wyllie's Straw Locomotive (right), a 1987 piece shown in Glasgow. This was pointed out in a French-language blog post by Catherine-Alice Palagret and just recently by L.A. Times reader J. Ponds, commenting on a March 2009 article.
Though the materials of the trains are different, as are the budgets, consider:
• Both are life-size steam locomotives
• Both are suspended from a crane
• The cranes are of comparable height (200 feet in Glasgow v. 161 feet planned for L.A.)
• The color schemes are similar--black, red, and yellow(ish)
• Koons' train is to puff steam; Wyllie's was burned, producing smoke
Though Wyllie isn't well-known in the U.S., he showed his 120-foot-long Paper Boat in New York in 1990. Koons has built a career on appropriation and has been sued several times for allegedly infringing on lesser-known artists' ideas. "Good artists copy, great artists steal," Picasso supposedly said. Some might say that Wyllie "stole" the surreally levitating train from Magritte. At any rate, if Koons was aware of Straw Train, it would solve one enduring mystery about the LACMA project: Why a crane?

Comments

Donald Frazell said…
And what was the cost of the straw trai compared to the giant toy one Koons and his LACMA allies want to waste money on? What an absurdist idea, to even consider this in this time, any time truly, is sick. It is NOT art. Certainly not creative art, nor any other kind I am aware of. Its entertainment for those with too much time and money on their hands. And we cant afford decent basic healthcare for Americans, which ALL other first world countries have? PLEASE!

ART COLLEGIA DELENDA EST!
Anonymous said…
Now thats interesting.

Seems LACMA is willing to commission a second large sculpture based on the unrecognized work of another. Chris Burden/Sheila Kleine come to mind.

Credit and originality don't seem to matter if a big fish wants to gobble up a guppy.