Seldom has the contempt of a contemporary artist for the heritage of Western Civilization been exposed so clearly as in the case of Maria Alquilar. Ms Alquilar was commissioned to create a ceramic mural for the Livermore, California library; for the sum of $40,000 she was to portray the great figures of our culture in a child-like fashion suitable for walking on while entering the library. She was able to fashion the portraits crudely enough but neglected to spell 11 of the names correctly. Fans of "Eistein," "Shakespere," and "Van Gough" protested but the latter-day "Lombardo Del Vinci" remained unrepentant.
The importance of this work is that it is supposed to unite people," Alquilar said. "They are denigrating my work and the purpose of this work."
The mistakes wouldn't even register with a true artisan, Alquilar claimed. "The people that are into humanities, and are into Blake's concept of enlightenment, they are not looking at the words," she said. "In their mind the words register correctly."
She had originally agreed to accept another $6,000 plus expenses to repair her mistakes but now says that the flood of hate mail she has received has deterred her and she will never return to Livermore.
Posted by Dexter at October 13, 2004 06:45 PM