Andy Rooney on public art

Craft & Design


Andy Rooney doesn’t like (some) public art, specifically bright colored animals – since this discussion comes up a lot in the comment sections of MAKE I figured it would be good to post it up via Eyebeam.

24 thoughts on “Andy Rooney on public art

  1. lungofish says:

    Wow, Andy Rooney discovers modern art.

    Way to catch up to 1971, Andy, Good job! I can’t wait till 2023 to hear what you have to say about rap music!

  2. Jack says:

    Wow, I want to stab my ears with a torx and bleach my mind after this guy’s bs.

  3. Hanover says:

    All of the points he made with reference to the art shown is correct. A Painted fiberglass cow isn’t art, and the people that “appreciate” this “art” are juveniles that do not know what hard work real art is.

    The difference between art and trash is the setting. Put art in a junkyard and it’s plainly obvious it doesn’t belong there.
    But it’d be pretty hard to distinguish what passes for “modern art” from the rest of the trash…..

    Seriously, how can anyone, in their right mind place that trash in front of the new york symphony. Those artist have spent years perfecting what they do. I don’t see how anyone cannot see the difference between talent and basically playground equipment….

  4. Jack of Most Trades says:

    Art is “a matter of haircuts and neckties”..

  5. zof says:

    As much as I disagree with Andy he’s mostly right about this, its amazing what passes as art now a days, in fact art has become a slutty word. An elephant holds a paint brush while his trainer gives him treats for moving his trunk around, a person gets a fiber glass cow made then paints it, someone pulls a brick out of the road then replaces it with an acrylic one with a led throwie in it.

    The problem with art is it has always been interpreted in the eye of the beholder, what might not be art to me might be art to someone else and then the other way around. But don’t make me pay with my tax dollars to install your art, fixed the damage you did or cause me to walk even an extra 5 steps to get around it. Keep your art in a gallery where people who want to see it can and people who don’t can walk to the pub unobstructed.

    Art is something people purposely go see, not something you force people to see on their way to work.

  6. St.Eligius says:

    A lot of people could make the case that what Andy Rooney does is not journalism or “real work”. Some may say that Andy is just a bitter old man griping about whatever raises his ire this second. Art is for its own sake and whatever the artist desires it to be. He should just ignore it like I try to do with him.

  7. Anonymous says:

    while all above statements can be backed up or refuted, it stands to reason that without these people making their “art” the rest of us wouldn’t be able to clarify what we believe art is. For me, art is the quest to illustrate a universal truth- so now the task is to figure out how where the connection between fiberglass cows and a specific truth lies. If any…

  8. nap70 says:

    I recall Andy Rooney being an old bastard 30 years ago when I was a kid. For a minute I thought “how can that be possible?” So I checked wikipedia. He started on 60 minutes in 1978 when he was 59 years old! He really has been an old bastard on TV for 30 years.

  9. Theo says:

    Back in art school, I had a saying; kinda a meta-descriptor of what I saw back then (including some of the stuff in the clip)…

    “The purist form of art, is the art of the BS.”
    (in other words, it’s not what you do, but how well you sell it).

  10. Marc de Vinck says:

    I thought I knew what Art was until I looked it up on Wikipedia:

    “…Art is the third album from the Australian rock band, Regurgitator, released in 1999.”

    Now I am really confused. Still, not as confused as Mr. Rooney.

    Remember, Renoir, Monet, Degas, and Manet were not exactly well received at the time. Maybe some of the art Mr. Rooney talks about will be forgotten, and maybe some will be looked at a 100 years from now as revolutionary.

    Unfortunately for Mr. Rooney, I don’t think anyone will look back and see him as revolutionary in any way….just bitter.

  11. Anonymous says:

    Most of that looked like decoration at a mall or a Cheezy Time Fun Factory.

    Proof that Andy has taste: that big slab of walnut he calls a desk.

  12. walkytalky says:

    About art and what it is and whether Mr. Rooney has a handle on it, or life or anything. And that is all I ever wanted from art or ‘the arts’- to help us connect, discuss-not necessarily to agree, but to talk. It’s really healthy and it’s not even like the art even matters that much, it’s this wonderful fever to tell that it instigates between folk.
    Well done Andy, well done Jeff Koons- you’re all right guys.

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