MoMa Don’t Preach

I was up early this morning and researching an idea for an upcoming show. I came across an interview on Beautiful Decay’s website with Oliver Blanckart. There was a sculpture of his that caught my attention. I thought I would post of the interview:

SL: The work “MoMA Don’t Preach” is a clever double entendre, implying Madonna’s hit single and directly referencing the institution of all art institutions, the Museum of Modern Art. Can you describe why you decided to link these two powerhouses; Madonna, arguably the most iconic and lasting figures from the annals of pop culture, and the Museum of Modern Art, the rigid and stuffy authority on the modern art historical canon? 

 OB: The “MOMA Don’t Preach” sculpture started as one of my favorite mind farts. I was looking at a giant video of Madonna performing during the Africa Aids Unplugged Concert at Wembley, England and I saw the great artist she was with no artifice; and I then made the connection with “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” which I had just seen at MOMA that day. This painting is considered a cornerstone of the MOMA collection, which is nothing more than a painting of prostitutes in a brothel, and I remembered that Picasso was a friend of prostitutes and Madonna was a friend of Basquiat. So, I am exploring inspiration. It is amazing to compare the two figures and say neither one is superior. Museums are tending to be more part of the global entertainment system which is quite new. You pay $20 to get into MOMA; something is weird about that. The dream of institutions and biennales is to attract the popularity of the entertainment industries: Apple is opening a store in the Louvre. To me Madonna is a real pop artist and the museums seek show business success. There is no doubt that pop stars are pop stars but it is unclear that art institutions are trying to be pop stars themselves… 

For more on Oliver’s sculpture, follow this link: PPOW

Tags: Beautiful Decay, Moma Don't Preach, Oliver Blanckart