Money in the bank — For the past few weeks, Art Bar has been tracking the events of the recent Piquette Storage fire that destroyed the props and sets used by Swords into Plowshares Theatre Company. After the disaster, the theater group solicited donations that could help them replace their inventory. Finally, here’s some good news: Comerica Bank stepped up to the plate and contributed $5,000. Taking into account that it is late in the giving season, which means most of their funds for such efforts are probably already disbursed, this is quite a chunk of cash. For Swords into Plowshares, the support means a lot.
Feeling or faking it — Some folks believe that a lot of art with a price tag of hundreds of thousands of dollars looks like it was created by a chimp or a chump. For those of you who dispute the quality of Marcel Duchamp’s urinal or the relevance of Jeff Koons’ Michael Jackson and Bubbles, there’s a Web site offering you the last laugh: modestypanel.com/art_or_crap. It’s a quiz that showcases so-called world-renowned masterpieces next to, ummm, other crap, and asks you to choose whether or not what you are looking at is art. Browse the images of chocolate bunnies, carrot sticks and even a fur-covered teacup. Then decide for yourself. Even erudite art lovers will foul up a couple of times, or at least second-guess themselves. And that’s the hilarious point.
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