Last week LentSpace, a temporary public art and sculpture park, opened in downtown Manhattan. According to the New York Times, “The seven sculptural pieces in the inaugural lineup all, in one form or another, incorporate visual puns playing on the conventions of city-park design or on the idea of what deserves to be classified as public art.”
Yesterday, Curbed reported that someone vandalized several pieces in the area, tagging them with the phrase “This is not art.” Sadly, we don’t think this is an inside job akin to Poster Boy’s MoMA remix last winter.
The commenters over on Curbed are divided into a few camps: some hate all graff artists and think they should be jailed; some are questioning whether the phrase could actually be referring to the tag itself; some have suggestions for alternate text (“this is a negligible piece, fobbed off on an unsuspecting public by an half-baked would-be artist backed up by an indifferent bureaucrat”).
So, what do you think? More pre-vandalism images of the space below.
All photos by curbed.