Sometime in 1960 Willem de Kooning commented to his friend Jasper Johns that the gallery dealer Leo Castelli could sell beer cans if he put his mind to it. Johns, not one to pass up a good idea when he heard one,, went about replicating two Ballantine Ale cans in bronze and painting all the details of the labels, right down to the famous three rings, in oil paint. The twin cans sit on a stirred up plinth, magnificent in their gleaming, slightly irregular surfaces, quietly proclaiming their artfulness while coyly denying that they are out-and-out imitations of actual objects.
Now Buffalo has its own beer cans. Giant beer cans. Labatt's Beer cans. Painted on grain silos. Good news, bad news: it's hard to tell. Certainly a tourist attraction, if nothing else. In this case, scale has replaced artistry.
Now Buffalo has its own beer cans. Giant beer cans. Labatt's Beer cans. Painted on grain silos. Good news, bad news: it's hard to tell. Certainly a tourist attraction, if nothing else. In this case, scale has replaced artistry.
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