The SF Chronicle’s genial arts writer, Jesse Hamlin, took a stab at a top 10 SF public art list over the weekend, here. Hamlin stepped into a gap; public art coverage at the Chron is spotty.
It’s easy to blame the paper’s art critic, Kenneth Baker, but the real culprit is the art itself. Forced to tiptoe around the sensitivities of the boutique city by the Bay, art arrives on the streets with a good back story to support its existence and very little forward momentum. Unless the artist is universally acclaimed and/or unlikely to offend any aging flower children, the chances of squeaking through the public process are slim.
Hamlin’s list includes what Hamlin admits to be kitsch – an awkward sculpture of Father Junipero Serra – because it “makes us smile.”
Kitsch makes the list? Seattle has a neon elephant that tops SF’s carved missionary, with the additional virtue of cleaning your car.
The roots of SF’s public art aversion here.
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