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Ethel Greene, “The World’s Greatest Parking Lot,” oil on canvas, 1969 (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I think how much hatred and revulsion I feel looking at this is the brilliance here.

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[-] [email protected] 107 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

The "revulsion being the point" comment brought back a memory...

My brother and I had a disagreement when I was young. He is a prolific and talented artist who went to an art and design college, and I was a teenage dumbass who was invited a show of his and others' work.

One such work was a framed typewritten letter.

I told my brother that that was not art and I thought it was stupid to call it art, and that it devalued the efforts of the other artists.

He didn't respond at first other than to say that art is often in the eye of the beholder and if it elicits a reaction it typically can be qualified as art.

He left it at that but I kept thinking about what he said. I was really annoyed that they could possibly call a stupid framed letter art just because it was hung in an art gallery. I said as much to several people over time.

About two years later I went back to visit him, this time for a solo show. He does abstract painting, and I liked his stuff. We started talking about the work and how some if it reminded me of our childhood home.

At one point I brought up the framed letter and how it still made me roll my eyes when compared to the work you see in art galleries.

He just smiled and said "still thinking about that piece?"

I was annoyed to admit that whatever my opinion might be I could not deny that it had had a profound effect on me, evidently.

So, yeah the revulsion at the thought of an acre of potential meadow being permanently smothered so that 4% of it could be used to park pollution machines is definitely the brilliance here...

[-] [email protected] 29 points 4 weeks ago

I think art depends a lot on context. It’s promoting something to you and asking you to respond to it, and how you respond to it depends a lot on who you are and what you think about.

This image makes me think about ecological destruction and the emptiness of capitalism, but I don’t think every person who looks at it feels despair - it probably depends on whether they spend time on a website with a community called FuckCars or not lol. It leans into a mixture of surrealism and realism. It’s interesting how she’s leaning into realism to kinda draw out that sense of disgust and revulsion. Waterbed by her seems to lean more into her softer surrealism, because she’s not wanting us to feel the same kind of uncomfortable.

Similar to the idea of “it’s just a typewritten letter,” I absolutely love Duchamp. I got to see his Fountain and one of his Wineracks on a tour of Europe. “It’s just a urinal.” But goddamn did I break down in tears. The Winerack was a lucky surprises (I saved a pesky in-law from causing an international incident there lol).

It’s art because he took it out of context and told us to think about it. He said, “maybe everything is art or nothing is. What do you want to do about it?”

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

I'm extremely interested about the nature of the potential international incident...

And while Winerack is a great similarity to the typewritten letter, it feels not unlike modern day AI art plagiarism to me. He literally bought the thing in a shop and then displayed it with his name on it!

[-] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago

He literally bought the thing in a shop and then displayed it with his name on it!

And he did so to enter it into an art exhibition under a different name as an intentional statement. That art is defined by the agency and choices of the artist. Reading on it is very interesting. There's a ton of meaning that was brought into existence just by the simple act of Duchamp choosing to treat the urinal as a piece of art. He actually modified it before choosing to enter it into the exhibition that suppressed its display. The Fountain was lost for a while, the kerfuffle made Duchamp take the decision to quit from the exhibition's board, as he was part of it. There are conspiracy theories that it was actually by a female friend who went under the R. Mutt pseudonym. Then the story reached high class society. It went missing again—and to this day—but several reproductions were ordered to Duchamp from art collectors. Since then there have been hundreds of interventions and reproductions, a whole century of sculptures and discourse and arguments and philosophical debate.

Because Duchamp once chose to treat a urinal as art.

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Extraordinarily wealthy spoiled fourteen year old being chaperoned walking around by yours truly and a similarly “prone to accidents” ex. Walking around bored with their head buried in their phone. Last minute shirt grab as they walked around the museum into an unroped off sculpture because it was a tiny modern art museum in Rome, not the kind of one that expects American teenagers.

Ooof… I’m not team plagiarism though. Was it old? Was it attributed?

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Yes, was immediately thinking of Duchamp as well 😸:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)

[-] [email protected] 9 points 4 weeks ago

In that case I would probably read the letter before I try and make a judgement, if it's something emotionally charged then sure I get it.

If it's lorem ipsum, I genuinely don't understand how it's art but you do you, artist. I've had people try to explain their art to me and I still didn't get it.

It really is something that's subjective.

Also something I don't get: painting something and then covering it with layers and layers of single color paint. I am willing to accept others find it thought provoking, I find it a waste and honestly want to fingerpaint a little stick figure on the blank space. Surely that would add to the art? (again, I don't understand it)

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

painting something and then covering it with layers and layers of single color paint.

I think this might be a kind of reference to Rothko. I have to say something cliché, ask you to take this as an act of faith, but it’s a spiritual experience in person. It’s the immensity of the thing itself, being in a room surrounded by this wall of carefully placed color. It’s motion. Maybe you can approximate it by looking at a high res image of it, but nothing really escapes the three walls surrounding you, drowning you in color.

There’s the Rothko Chapel down in Texas that has a lot of his work I want to see - the experience I had was at the Tate.

A stick figure is kind of cute to imagine, but it would subvert that “sensory tank” experience that I found… blissful. Black, as a color? To look at the absence of light as a kind of thing?

Tbh, I make a lot of that “slap slight variations of the same color across a single canvas” - usually my homemade paper or random thrifted objects. I like doing it, but I’m not quite sure if it’s “art” in the same way.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

Those "framed letter" pieces just make artists look like pretentious pricks.

The worst example I've seen is an oak tree. What is hilarious is apparently I only saw an artist's "copy", not the original.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Unfortunately, people seem to think that just because something elicits a reaction of “this is not art” that that qualifies as eliciting the required reaction that makes it “art”. Still being irritated over the subjective claim that a framed letter is art, IMO, doesn’t validate that the claim that the letter is art. The artist or viewers can call it what they wish.

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[-] [email protected] 54 points 4 weeks ago

I'm a city planner. I want a print of this to put up in my office

[-] [email protected] 24 points 4 weeks ago

Might reach out to these guys? She seems kinda under appreciated.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 4 weeks ago

That's kind of like a chef having a photo of a turd with some chives on it. I only hope you want this to remind you of what to stay away from.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Yes, yes... have those citizens driven before you and hear the lamentations of their environmental activists!

[-] [email protected] 45 points 4 weeks ago

Wow didnt realize this was a painting at first

[-] [email protected] 21 points 4 weeks ago

Average US city

[-] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

Except in my city they'd all be full.

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[-] [email protected] 39 points 4 weeks ago

I hate this. It's great!

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

I watch Foodfight! at least three times a year. Just thinking about it means that I will watch it on YouTube tonight, to avoid opening my sealed copy.

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[-] [email protected] 32 points 4 weeks ago

And some asshole will still park right next to you. Like 3 inches from your car. And there are dozens of open spots.

[-] [email protected] 34 points 4 weeks ago

[-] [email protected] 16 points 4 weeks ago

"Captain, there's something we need to discuss."

"Go away, Spock!"

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Nobody wants to ~~die~~ piss alone.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 4 weeks ago

Of course all the best spots are already taken

[-] [email protected] 24 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Don't it always seem to go,

That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...

They painted over paradise,

And drew up a parking lot.

[-] [email protected] 22 points 4 weeks ago

Now remember, we're in the Itchy lot.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

We park at the back because when the park's all full and everybody's struggling to get out, we'll be the first to leave!

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[-] [email protected] 19 points 4 weeks ago

I wish I could find a higher res of this. The actual paint work looks great and I wish I could see more detail in the cars.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 4 weeks ago

My biggest beef with Lemmy art communities. I think largely due to restrictions from instances, the image quality is almost always dissapointing here.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago

She’s a relatively obscure artist. I ran into similar issues. I think she’s housed at the San Diego Museum of Art. The stuff I’ve found on her seems to point out how underappreciated she is as a surrealist, how she references Magritte as an influence. She seems really “slept on.”

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

To be fair, I couldn’t find this in better quality anywhere else either. I had a hard time finding references to it at all other than an article that didn’t have the picture, and a Reddit and Flickr repost that are the same quality.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 4 weeks ago

When the parkinglot is so big, that you need additional public transport to get to your location.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 4 weeks ago

That's the new slogan for Disney World, I heard!

[-] [email protected] 12 points 4 weeks ago

I need a car to go park my car

[-] [email protected] 10 points 4 weeks ago

This must've been an absolute bitch to paint. All those lines. Damn. But I like it. I wouldn't want to look at it all the time, but a nice painting.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

That's a long walk from the car.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

Okay we're here, now to find a good spot...

[-] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

So many questions.. Where is it exactly? What does it serve?

[-] [email protected] 10 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

It's an acrylic painting. It was in the Crocker Art Museum, but idk if its moved.

Edit: https://www.crockerart.org/art/detail/the-worlds-greatest-parking-lot-ethel-greene-2022-29-1

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

I thought it was a picture of my hometown

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Terrifying.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

I get hating looking at this, but I actually love looking at it. It's such a weird space. I wonder about it. I want to be there, to see what that's like.

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

i feel like a bus or smth to get to the other side of the lot would be nice...

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this post was submitted on 30 May 2025

731 points (99.1% liked)

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