Ah, no. Wait. The headline is a bit deceptive: "‘Spiral Jetty’ Is Named an Official State Work of Art by Utah." Note the "an." It's not the official state work of art.
The great American sculptor Robert Smithson... would undoubtedly have been pleased with a vote by the Utah Senate and the Utah House of Representatives to designate as official state works of art both his masterpiece — “Spiral Jetty,” the huge curlicue of black basalt rock he built in 1970, jutting into the Great Salt Lake in rural Utah — and the state’s plentiful ancient rock art, petroglyphs and pictographs that have been widely celebrated and studied.That's a lot of works of art! All the petroglyphs and pictographs are included. They've got one modern, monumental thing keeping company with innumerable ancient rather small things. Why designate at all if you can't choose? This is the kind of everybody-gets-a-trophy attitude that is ruining this country.
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I don't see any deception. The headline would be deceptive, if the "an" had not been there. With it, it seems like a perfectly good headline.
I do sense a whiff of the ol' New York coastal superiority, in the tone, but I'd have trouble articulating anything substantively wrong with the story. The NYT is bound to deem anything done by a group of Republican state legislators as dubious; if the same work of art was being praised by a sophisticated art critic, they'd deem it highly important.
There are countless "Official things of the state of ______." The designation of recognized works of art, it seems to me, is one of the better uses of "official state" designations.
If you wanted a really solid example of New York Times journalistic malpractice, you could go immediately to the editorial page headline over Mitt Romney's famous op-ed, "Let Detroit go bankrupt." Which became a whole genre of Romney-slander.
At least the state isn't doing anything detrimental to the future of the free world with this designation, so that's a positive. OTOH, that they designate a a pile of rocks in a spiral as art doesn't say much for the future of civilization. But Utah standards are not as high as mine. My five year old grandson and his two year old sister could do this. But they are Legends.
A Salty Petroglyph makes some good Mormon Art. Ask the Angel.
What, no concern by the NYT about the obvious cultural appropriation of aboriginal art, not to mention the environmental damage involved?
Their standards are slipping.
"My five year old grandson and his two year old sister could do this."
They must be pretty strong and industrious. Spiral Jetty is 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide.
Bill Peschel said...
Their standards are slipping.
And their slippings are standard.
Spiral Jetty is an ugly thing.
Homer Spit is much prettier and is natural.
They lost me at "so unique." Per the great George Carlin:
"Unique needs no modifier. Very unique, quite unique, more unique, real unique, fairly unique, and extremely unique are wrong and they mark you as dumb, although certainly not unique."
Ann Althouse said...
They must be pretty strong and industrious. Spiral Jetty is 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide.
They could do the intellectual work; in fact already have on several occasions. Yes, they would need a little help with the rocks. Utah apparently has those folks available.
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