Saving ‘The Gross Clinic’

With the deadline for the sale of The Gross Clinic just two weeks away, Philadelphia’s art community is attempting to save the painting from a fate worse than hell: Going to Bentonville, Arkansas.

While it seems that the sale of The Gross Clinic to Walmart heiress’ Alice Walton’s Crystal Bridges Museum and the National Gallery of Art is all but a sure thing, that hasn’t stopped the sale of $2 buttons with the message “Keep ‘Gross’ in Philadelphia.” And painter Charles Cushing is doing a full-size replica of Thomas Eakins’ masterpiece in the lobby of Two Penn Center. (Neat!) He hopes to finish by Dec. 26, the deadline of the sale.

But we all know that nothing in this town gets done without a committee, and that’s why we’ve formed a Committee to Save The Gross Clinic! Who’s on it? Well, Rocky Statue hater Moe Brooker, a few people connected to Jefferson/Eakins, all your usual local tourism/yay Philly people and actor Kevin Bacon. (Hey! They got a celebrity! Just like the casino companies did!)

Bacon even gave a quote to the Inquirer: “This masterpiece and this artist are so intertwined and connected to this city that it should and must remain where it was created, and shared with as many people as possible.”

Rock on, Gross Clinic saviors! (But mainly, a “rock on” to the star of Tremors and Hollow Man.) Here’s to hoping your seemingly futile battle isn’t so futile at all.

Six degrees of Eakins energy [Inquirer]
Sincerest form of flattery for Eakins [Inquirer]
Aug. 3: An Oop De Doo For ‘Rocky’

An Oop De Doo For ‘Rocky’

Way back in May, the Fairmount Park Commission announced it was going to move the Rocky statue to the side of the Art Museum. It seemed like a move that would please everyone: The Art Museum doesn’t have to put a giant ad for the new Rocky movie on the top of the steps, tourists going to the Art Museum steps can get their photos taken with the statue in an out-of-the-way place and birds have a new place to shit.

Of course, then we remembered: This is Philadelphia. Yesterday, the city Art Commission put the kibosh on the idea, at least for now. Commissioner Moe Brooker’s reasoning:

“It’s not art,” said artist Moe Brooker, a commissioner. “It was a prop.”

Aw, c’mon, Moe. Can’t you see the similarities between your work, Oop De Doo (pictured, available for $500 from Brandywine Workshop), and the Rocky statue?

Tell you what: We’ll put it at the top of the Art Museum steps, call it a meta-commentary on the comercialization of American art and charge $25 to get your photo taken with it. Hell, we’ll cover the Art Museum steps with a giant print of Oop De Doo, too, and sell prints of that. It’ll be so artistic our heads’ll explode.

Art Commission doesn’t like site near museum for ‘Rocky’ [Inquirer]
May 21: People Quackers Over ‘Rocky’ Statue