Hi Mike,
Sunday afternoon, and I'm sitting around nursing a sore back.
For some reason, I thought about you, and your love of obscure
history--thought you might like to be reminded of a very funny
event in Olympia Washington in the early 80's.
The State was trying to create more public art and had requested proposals for the Legislative Chamber in Olympia. Ultimately Michael Spafford was chosen to create a mural "the twelve labors of Hercules". Shortly after the creation of the giant panels in the chamber, the mural was deemed pornographic and obscene, gggg (for good reason in my opinion, lol) and with
much furor was covered over with plywood. Due to a court ruling, it seems to be impossible to find pictures of the original mural panels on the web. Although a prototype that was submitted for the original selection committee can be seen here:
sedersgallery.com
Labors of Hercules, indeed. Anyway, it was all a good joke, with the farmers on the east side of the mountains up in arms, the art community applauding artistic expression, and the urbane Seattle folks chuckling in their lattes.
Lew |
