Spring Break
Our View - It's art, respect it
Issue date: 2/9/09 Section: Opinion
Art, it's everywhere around us whether we like it or not.
This seems to be the case for the blue "Mustang" situated at Denver International Airport. But just as the sculpture reached its one-year-old mark this year, many Coloradans want the statue removed.
We say keep it.
Artist Luis Jimenez began working on the rearing statue of a horse in 1992, planning to have it delivered and erected by 1995, when DIA first opened. Jimenez was killed in 2006 when a section of the sculpture collapsed and fell on him. The mustang was put into place Feb. 11, 2008, and has since become, in a way, a tribute to a man who died following his passion for art.
No, we don't get it. The glowing red eyes that ominously shine on everybody who makes their way to the airport creep us out too. The bright blue coat of paint comes nowhere near matching the Bronco blue that we Coloradans know and love. It's weird, grotesque, and probably the last thing you want to see before getting on a plane. But it's art. You're not supposed to get it.
Art is continually marginalized. It is ignored (or if not ignored, than uprooted). We don't like the DIA mustang, the twisting metal spines on campus, or the drug-addled masterworks of some "modern artists." But we appreciate and respect that they get it. Every piece of art has a meaning to somebody. Be it a tribute, a way to express one's otherwise inexpressible emotions, or just a creative way to make one's surroundings a little bit better, art is immensely important to a vibrant and full existence.
So, it may have cost thousands of dollars, have glowing red eyes, and killed the artist in the making, but who are we to tame art? Leave the DIA mustang alone, and just close your eyes while you drive by.
This seems to be the case for the blue "Mustang" situated at Denver International Airport. But just as the sculpture reached its one-year-old mark this year, many Coloradans want the statue removed.
We say keep it.
Artist Luis Jimenez began working on the rearing statue of a horse in 1992, planning to have it delivered and erected by 1995, when DIA first opened. Jimenez was killed in 2006 when a section of the sculpture collapsed and fell on him. The mustang was put into place Feb. 11, 2008, and has since become, in a way, a tribute to a man who died following his passion for art.
No, we don't get it. The glowing red eyes that ominously shine on everybody who makes their way to the airport creep us out too. The bright blue coat of paint comes nowhere near matching the Bronco blue that we Coloradans know and love. It's weird, grotesque, and probably the last thing you want to see before getting on a plane. But it's art. You're not supposed to get it.
Art is continually marginalized. It is ignored (or if not ignored, than uprooted). We don't like the DIA mustang, the twisting metal spines on campus, or the drug-addled masterworks of some "modern artists." But we appreciate and respect that they get it. Every piece of art has a meaning to somebody. Be it a tribute, a way to express one's otherwise inexpressible emotions, or just a creative way to make one's surroundings a little bit better, art is immensely important to a vibrant and full existence.
So, it may have cost thousands of dollars, have glowing red eyes, and killed the artist in the making, but who are we to tame art? Leave the DIA mustang alone, and just close your eyes while you drive by.
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