Boris
10-08-2004, 02:27 PM
article (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/08/MNGEO95U381.DTL)
California law prohibits anyone other than the original artist from altering publicly commissioned works of art. lol.
http://sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2004/10/08/mn_mural005mjm.jpg
http://sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2004/10/08/ba_mural03.jpg
http://sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2004/10/08/ba_mural04.jpg
A colorful mosaic gracing the entrance of Livermore's new library is of a genre known as naïve art because of its whimsical design and childlike nature.
Maybe that explains why 11 of the 175 names and words on the piece are misspelled -- from "Eistein" and "Shakespere" to "Van Gough" and "Michaelangelo."
The $40,000 project now will cost the city a few thousand more because it must pay the artist to fly from her Miami home and correct the mistakes.
The misspelled mosaic has pitted art advocates against language purists. Some argue that artistic expression allows the artist to spell "Gaugan" (the painter known to those who can spell as Gauguin) however she likes, and others say such mistakes do not belong anywhere near the city's home of knowledge and literacy.
"It hurts to look at it," said Carola Williams, a retired translator who visited the Civic Center Library on Thursday to check out a book and was sidetracked by the errors.
"Before you put it in cement, you really should double-check everything."
A divided City Council voted 3-2 on Monday to pay artist Maria Alquilar $6,000 -- plus expenses -- to correct the errors because state law bars the city from removing or changing public art without the creator's consent.
Before the contentious vote, city officials debated leaving the mistakes alone and turning them into a "Where's Waldo?"-like game in which library visitors try to spot the blunders on their own.
"If a misspelling of a word happens, it drives me nuts," said Livermore Mayor Marshall Kamena, who majored in English at UC Berkeley and voted against repairing the piece. "But I don't use the same standard for art. ... There's some censorship going on by saying, 'Three or four people don't like this so we want you to do your art over again.' "
An image of the tree of life sits at the center of the 16-foot-diameter mosaic and is surrounded by icons representing science, art, literature and history as well as windmills and vineyards that depict life in Livermore.
The city's public art committee selected Alquilar in 2000 to develop the mosaic outside the new $26 million library based on her written proposal. Alquilar later submitted sketches of her design, but the drawings did not include any of the words that ultimately appeared in the piece, library director Susan Gallinger said.
And it wasn't until the mosaic, firmly secured in place with concrete, was unveiled when the library opened in May that the errors were noticed.
"The most egregious is Einstein," Gallinger said. "That's the worst one."
A tile image of the scientist's face, complete with his famous bushy hair, sits next to a symbol of an atom and the word "Eistein."
It's a particularly egregious blunder in Livermore, which is home to several hundred nuclear physicists who work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
And while Alquilar couldn't spell some names any fifth-grader could recognize, she got Tonantzin (the Aztec goddess of motherhood), Tutankhamen (an Egyptian pharaoh) and Archipenko (an American sculptor) right.
Embarrassment aside, Gallinger says the attention, which includes interview requests from CNN and other networks, may not be such a bad thing.
"It has drawn so many people to us to see the new library," she said. "In some ways, there's no such thing as bad publicity."
City officials said Alquilar was paid in installments while the mosaic was in progress and then -- despite the mistakes -- was given a larger check when the work was completed.
Alquilar, who lived in Santa Cruz before moving to Florida, could not be reached for comment Thursday. A message on her studio answering machine said only "non-polemic" phone calls would be returned.
However, she was unapologetic about the blunders when she told the Associated Press that others present when the mosaic was installed should have caught them.
Besides, she said, it's art.
"The people that are into humanities, and are into (William) Blake's concept of enlightenment, they are not looking at the words," she said. "In their mind, the words register correctly."
City officials who pointed out the errors to Alquilar said she seemed to have no idea the names were spelled incorrectly.
Albert Rothman, a retired scientist who visited the library Thursday, laughed as he pointed out the errors to others who came to observe -- and also laugh at -- the now-famous mosaic.
"I'm close to a perfect speller," he said. "This is sort of embarrassing to Livermore. It's just plain sloppiness."
California law prohibits anyone other than the original artist from altering publicly commissioned works of art. lol.
http://sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2004/10/08/mn_mural005mjm.jpg
http://sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2004/10/08/ba_mural03.jpg
http://sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2004/10/08/ba_mural04.jpg
A colorful mosaic gracing the entrance of Livermore's new library is of a genre known as naïve art because of its whimsical design and childlike nature.
Maybe that explains why 11 of the 175 names and words on the piece are misspelled -- from "Eistein" and "Shakespere" to "Van Gough" and "Michaelangelo."
The $40,000 project now will cost the city a few thousand more because it must pay the artist to fly from her Miami home and correct the mistakes.
The misspelled mosaic has pitted art advocates against language purists. Some argue that artistic expression allows the artist to spell "Gaugan" (the painter known to those who can spell as Gauguin) however she likes, and others say such mistakes do not belong anywhere near the city's home of knowledge and literacy.
"It hurts to look at it," said Carola Williams, a retired translator who visited the Civic Center Library on Thursday to check out a book and was sidetracked by the errors.
"Before you put it in cement, you really should double-check everything."
A divided City Council voted 3-2 on Monday to pay artist Maria Alquilar $6,000 -- plus expenses -- to correct the errors because state law bars the city from removing or changing public art without the creator's consent.
Before the contentious vote, city officials debated leaving the mistakes alone and turning them into a "Where's Waldo?"-like game in which library visitors try to spot the blunders on their own.
"If a misspelling of a word happens, it drives me nuts," said Livermore Mayor Marshall Kamena, who majored in English at UC Berkeley and voted against repairing the piece. "But I don't use the same standard for art. ... There's some censorship going on by saying, 'Three or four people don't like this so we want you to do your art over again.' "
An image of the tree of life sits at the center of the 16-foot-diameter mosaic and is surrounded by icons representing science, art, literature and history as well as windmills and vineyards that depict life in Livermore.
The city's public art committee selected Alquilar in 2000 to develop the mosaic outside the new $26 million library based on her written proposal. Alquilar later submitted sketches of her design, but the drawings did not include any of the words that ultimately appeared in the piece, library director Susan Gallinger said.
And it wasn't until the mosaic, firmly secured in place with concrete, was unveiled when the library opened in May that the errors were noticed.
"The most egregious is Einstein," Gallinger said. "That's the worst one."
A tile image of the scientist's face, complete with his famous bushy hair, sits next to a symbol of an atom and the word "Eistein."
It's a particularly egregious blunder in Livermore, which is home to several hundred nuclear physicists who work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
And while Alquilar couldn't spell some names any fifth-grader could recognize, she got Tonantzin (the Aztec goddess of motherhood), Tutankhamen (an Egyptian pharaoh) and Archipenko (an American sculptor) right.
Embarrassment aside, Gallinger says the attention, which includes interview requests from CNN and other networks, may not be such a bad thing.
"It has drawn so many people to us to see the new library," she said. "In some ways, there's no such thing as bad publicity."
City officials said Alquilar was paid in installments while the mosaic was in progress and then -- despite the mistakes -- was given a larger check when the work was completed.
Alquilar, who lived in Santa Cruz before moving to Florida, could not be reached for comment Thursday. A message on her studio answering machine said only "non-polemic" phone calls would be returned.
However, she was unapologetic about the blunders when she told the Associated Press that others present when the mosaic was installed should have caught them.
Besides, she said, it's art.
"The people that are into humanities, and are into (William) Blake's concept of enlightenment, they are not looking at the words," she said. "In their mind, the words register correctly."
City officials who pointed out the errors to Alquilar said she seemed to have no idea the names were spelled incorrectly.
Albert Rothman, a retired scientist who visited the library Thursday, laughed as he pointed out the errors to others who came to observe -- and also laugh at -- the now-famous mosaic.
"I'm close to a perfect speller," he said. "This is sort of embarrassing to Livermore. It's just plain sloppiness."