Artist Would Transform Astor Place into Giant Casino

According to The Villager, all artist Arnie Charnick wants to do is transform that cube in Astor Place – a kinetic sculpture called “The Alamo” – into a giant craps table. Charnick’s vision would temporarily turn the big cube into a die with white Velcro dots, drop in a second giant die next to it, paint the Astor place island like a craps table, add some manhole-sized chips (one of which would actually be a manhole!) and string a 17-foot-high banner between two lampposts, depicting a casino-like scene. Clever, right? Not to the agent who represents Tony Rosenthal, the artist who made “The Alamo”:

Can you go into the Museum of Modern Art and draw on a Picasso painting? I don’t think so. What is the point of allowing someone else to capitalize on Mr. Rosenthal’s important and famous Work of Art by letting someone else modify or change or revise this Sculpture? Why not be an Artist, and create your own Art? If you want to be famous, rape Britney Spears and you’ll get in the newspaper.

Jeez, what a joy-kill. Charnick – who painted the mural in Veselka that will soon disappear – isn’t having much luck with the local community board either. The Villager reports that some scolds think Charnick’s twist on the installation would encourage gambling – in its current form, Rosenthal’s sculpture merely promotes dizziness and idle loafing. But sometimes it wears a chapeau.

Photo of a model of Arnie Charnick’s proposed public artwork courtesy The Villager.

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By John Del Signore in Arts & Entertainment on August 4, 2008 5:49 PM

Comments [rss]

zstone

I like it without the gaudy banner.

yoplay

exactly Arnie should do it spontaneously. And not try to just do this for media...

Politburo

Is it really spontaneous when you have to announce it and get approval first?

NannyState

That cube isn't really even a cube. It has some varigated forms within it, like a Louise Nevelson sculpture, hardly "dice". The whole thing is so literal and cheesy that it almost makes me wish Claes Oldenburg had never existed. But I like Claes. I don't like Arnie, and his idea as well as him should both be realized at Fresh Kills.

yoplay

This is actually an interesting idea... when else do you have a big square like that to build something slightly off beat around it. there's been a number of spontaneous pieces done to that thing. She's looking around. NYC is one big casino, so it needs a big CRAPS table in the middle of it... beats that 15mill leaky scaffolding piece. He didn't look around.

tsol

My eyes feel raped every time I see that eyesore "sculpture" and the trust fund gutter punks that congregate around it. They should haul it to the junk yard where Richard Serra's Tilted Arc fond its proper home.

Jen S

Did that guy REALLY suggest one rape a former pop star for fame?! What class. I hope he doesn't have kids.

the3rdbridge

@ Everybody.

Why so elitist? This sounds fun. It's not quite as forward as I would like (firebombing the east village and building condos over the smoldering remains of "starving" artists), but I think its repellent quality needs to be welcomed nonetheless...