Well, I’ll say this for my Trump Deranged Facebook Friends: they are useful for keeping up on that group’s rapidly progressing mental illness, which exhibits symptoms manifesting constant fury over trivia, obsessive behavior, presumptions of certitude, and loss of all perspective. Oh, and hypocrisy! Mustn’t forget hypocrisy.
My friend the Trump Deranged professor posted this today with favor:
“Today, a permanent artistic gift—Joel Shapiro’s “Blue”—was taken from the nation because Donald Trump didn’t like it.
“September 18, join Hands Off the Arts to raise your voice and make sure Trump pays the political price for his vandalism of John F. Kennedy’s memorial and our nation’s cultural center.”
I’m marking my calendar right now!
The alleged vandalism was Trump’s ordered removal of the ugly thing above, which, since I started personally boycotting the monument to one of our most unethical Presidents and his corrupt family dynasty that included a U.S. Senator who left a young woman to die in a submerged car, I had never seen before. Huh. Is the outrage over Trump getting rid of that piece of blue crap more contrived than the fury over the 250th Commemorative coin, or less?
In a risible report, the New York Times informs us that “Blue” is a “towering artwork.” And it fit so well with the neo-Classical style of the Edward Durrell Stone white marble box-shaped Center, too!
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts removed a major outdoor sculpture from the center’s grounds on Wednesday. The work, installed in 2019, was targeted for elimination after President Trump’s takeover of the center, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times.
The Kennedy Center made no advance announcement of its plans to remove the towering, vivid blue metal sculpture of a stick-like human figure, called “Blue.”
On Wednesday morning, the limbs and torso of the figure were wrapped in protective material; an arm was the first to be removed.
The Kennedy Center confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that the sculpture was being deinstalled and that a foundation dedicated to the artist would determine its next location. It did not say the reason for the removal but noted that the deinstallation of artworks that had been donated or lent was common practice for conservation or preservation purposes.
A news release from around the debut of “Blue” describes it as a permanent sculpture for the grounds.
“We are deeply grateful to Joel Shapiro for the years ‘Blue’ has spent animating our campus and connecting visitors to his vision,” the statement said. “We are honored to have been stewards of his vibrant work and a part of his enduring legacy.”
Mr. Shapiro died in 2025. His daughter, Ivy Shapiro, who is president of his foundation, said in an interview that she thought her father would have been “alarmed” that the sculpture was being taken down from its intended location.
“In Joel’s mind, it was one of his greatest site-specific commissions, which celebrated joy, freedom and creativity,” she said.
Hear! Hear! I know I’ve always seen giant metal stick figures as celebrations of joy, freedom and creativity. Not as much as those inflated wiggly-men, of course, but still.
If there is one thing I do not care to hear knee-jerk progressives bleat about in their ravings, it is President Trump removing a single ugly artwork from the grounds of a public building because “he didn’t like it.” In this case the President showed exquisite taste (for a change) but even if the thing weren’t a big blue metal stick figure, the reason “It stinks!” is still a brilliantly-reasoned critique compared to the Axis and Friends removing over 160 statues from public grounds …
…because a black lifetime petty thug died after an accidental use of excessive force by a Minnesota police officer while he was resisting arrest and over-dosing on drugs.
The hypocrisy—and willful blindness to it—exhibited in this latest episode of “Everything Trump Does Is Terrible And Justifies Impeachment If Not Death!” is…I need a new adjective for “beyond belief.” Let’s see…it looks like I use all of them, and the Thesaurus list doesn’t even include “gobsmacking,” “head-exploding” or the phase that keeps jumping into my mind right now, “so fucking stupid it makes my pancreas whimper.” I guess I’ll go with the Cambridge Dictionary’s more dignified and restrained “impossible to comprehend.”
Ethics Alarms 
I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting the Kennedy Center but have seen many images. The interior looks elegant, but the exterior is unimpressive, boring, unattractive. To be fair, I find New Formalist, rectilinear architecture bland.
The big blue stick figure is ugly and out of place. Perhaps it works at a theme park resort as a whimsical element. Good riddance.
I seriously question if anyone but the artist’s daughter actually likes it. But Trump is ditching it,so suddenly the thing is a national treasure.
Stone was “in” for a while. He also designed the original new Georgetown Law Center and the National Geographic building, all boring boxes
Where was the photo taken? Is that the stage entrance to the Kennedy Center in the background? Maybe a temporary location before it was moved to the Kennedy Center? The building looks as if it could be at the Kennedy Space Center.
That was the only one I could find that didn’t show cranes and stuff around it. Apparently the thing is so ugly that nobody photographed it until it was being dismantled.
I thought it was one of those inflatable figures used to attract attention to a car lot or Mattress Discounters.
Indeed! That’s what I thought, too!
jvb
That’s one of the least creative sculptures I’ve ever seen. It’s a beginner’s project in a 3D editing software. There’s barely any connection to human emotion or experience. Even the name lacks imagination. Why would anyone pay for something so bland, insipid, and inoffensive that doesn’t provoke or inspire any thought… aaaand I answered my own question, didn’t I?
(The other answer is money laundering.)
Embrace the power of AND….
The art isn’t the sculpture. The art is in the con of the artist who convinced wealthy *virtueless and unhappy* people to fund them.
There’s a kind of art for sure. It’s just not in the final product.
I’ve seen numerous art works that look almost exactly like that in front of car dealerships and “discount” furniture warehouses. In fairness, those are made of fabric and attached to a blower which is usually shut down at the daily close of business. This one seems to be made of somewhat stiffer stuff.
AIM, you are the third commenter to reference those things, as if I didn’t reference them directly in the post, to wit: “Not as much as those inflated wiggly-men, of course, but still.” The technical term for those things you described as attached to a blower is, I was authoritatively informed at a use car place in Arlington Virginia, “wiggly men.” Either the used car guy was wrong, or people are skimming my essays again…
Jack, I did see the original reference but my comment was my initial reaction to the image. I should have simply agreed with your assessment rather than just state my initial reaction before reading the entire post.
Not a problem, CM. I just thought my reference to the “wiggly man” was funny. Obviously, it occurred to everyone. Gotta get up early in the mornin’…
I’m loathe to post from this cartoon as I think it is ethically abhorrent but it does have the occasional funny joke:
Ok, I guess it posted 5 times and not even the video
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_man
“Legality
Many municipalities have prohibited tube men and similar inflatable advertising figures due to perceived visual ugliness and risk of distracting drivers from the road. These include small to mid-sized municipalities across, for example, Connecticut and Massachusetts, as well as large cities like Houston, Texas. In 2014, the Inflatable Advertising Dealer’s Association was reportedly unaware how many bans existed.”
Well, at least we know one thing you can’t do in Massachusetts is have a Wacky Wavy Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man.
Unless maybe if you put one in your yard while insane.
I’d rather have a tube man in my yard than “Blue.”
Tube men are fun. “Art” that looks likes like a lazy man’s excuse for money laundering isn’t.
It would work in Minecraft, but that just supports the reality that it’s exactly the sort of thing a (less-experienced) six-year-old playing a video game might produce. It’s essentially the sort of gimmicky crap designed for the society “elites” to gush over and display their (lockstep) superior artistic sensibilities. So maybe perfect for most of the Kennedy center bunch.
Perhaps they’ll get an equally obnoxious Jeff Koons piece to replace it.
(Minecraft is more art than “Blue Block Man”)
I expected more “Gumby” references. “Oh noooo… Mr Hands…. “
I think you’re mixing up Gumby with Mr. Bill, although they both had appearances on SNL back when it was funny.
Gumby! Pokey! Recall that Eddie Murphy played Gumby in a Gumby suit in a running SNL gag, back when SNL wasn’t just another late night progressive propaganda mouthpiece.
Take a perfectly good post, with some good potential, and then throw in some not-quite-complete stuff about Floyd’s death (his death was Chauvin-assisted) or the possible other reasons why Confederate statues might be an issue beyond aesthetics. I’m not involved in statue politics myself, but for some strange reason there are no Himmler statues in Berlin.
Stupid comment X 3.
1) Whether it was “Chauvin assisted” in no way adds any justification for a nationwide, often violent, protest, now, does it? Go ahead, explain the valid nexus between the stimulus and the result. No, “scam anti-white racist organization needed a way to extort complacent, lazy, mainstream institutions for profit” won’t fly.
2) See, jerk, I include tags at great inconvenience so you can do your due diligence and read what I have previously explained or argued here regarding major issues that recur. There’s a little “Confederate statuary ethics train wreck” tag on this one, capiche? And it covers many, many essays explaining why tearing down historical statues and other memorials to important Americans is unconscionable and has the effect of a prospective national lobotomy, airbrushing history Soviet-style based on presentism.
3) Comparing Robert E. Lee to Himmler is so mind-meltingly idiotic that all by itself it could trigger the Stupidity Rule (see the Commenter Standards). That’s bad faith arguing, at very least. Comparing the Third Reich to the Confederacy is almost as stupid, and just as offensive. Now, if there were any statues to Captain Wirz, THEN you might have had a basis for your comment, but there weren’t, because he did nothing positive in his life to justify a statue, even if he was unjustly hanged. Come to think of it, the closest analogy to a hypothetical memorial to Wirz is memorials to George Floyd.
Do better, or shut up.
That’s an official ruling, FYI.