Weekend roundup

I am confused. In Sunday's NYT, Roberta Smith declares that public art is "one of contemporary art's more exciting areas of endeavor and certainly its most dramatically improved one." Sure. There may be an argument to be made in that direction.

But Smith did not make it. First, her definition of 'public art' is curious. She specifically excludes earthworks -- many of which, most famously Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels, and Michael Heizer's Double Negative -- are absolutely public. (Urban, no. Public, yes.)

Then Smith goes down some strange Jeff Koons rabbit bunny-hole, using Koons' Balloon Dog (Yellow) as an example of public art. Balloon Dog (Yellow) couldn't be any further from public: It's owned by hedge fund-enabled impresario Steven Cohen. [Picture] It is on temporary loan to the Met, where it sits stands on the roof. Which makes it just as much public art as Cohen's toothy (but hardly toothsome) Damien Hirst. And why exactly is a privately-owned Koons on view at the Met 'public art' when a foundation-owned Koons on view at LACMA apparently isn't? Or is it?

As if this weren't confusing enough, Smith cites sculpture in privately-owned, security-guard-filled skyscrapers as 'public art.' At best, office building lobbies/atriums are selectively public.

(Smith's consideration also reveals her New Yorkness. There are numerous healthy, exciting public art programs around the country and have been for years: San Diego alone has featured inSite and the Stuart Collection at UCSD. And up the highway, the most exciting public work I've seen in the last year is Chris Burden's Urban Light.) 

It's possible Smith has a point about a revival of public art. But yesterday's essay only confused the conversation.

• Speaking of public art, I dig this Baltimore Museum of Art idea. Podcasts here.
  
• Not only did Richard Lacayo slam the University of Iowa regents for considering a possible Pollock sale, but for good measure he twice eviscerated the muddled, self-revealing musings of Felix Salmon. In other Iowa Pollock-related pontification, the Wall Street Journal's Eric Gibson comes down on the side of the angels too.
• Art critic John Russell, dead at 89.
• The Dallas Morning News' Scott Cantrell on the SITE Santa Fe biennial: Life is short, art is shorter.
• Martha Schwendener never writes like this for the NYT, which says more about the NYT than it does about her: This stemwinder on Kehinde Wiley is superb.
• Jen Graves finds a clever way to bring up a sticky question.