Additional References
The Elliott Wave Theorist, April 1989
THE ELLIOTT WAVE THEORIST postulated years ago that ugly public art was a typical sign of a mature bear market. Well, guess what. That very same piece of art which was installed in 1981 near the end of a 16 year bear market has just been removed at what EWT is labeling the cyclic high of the 1980s bull market and the peak of the post-crash 'B' wave rally.
The federal employees standing around a newly blight-free plaza in downtown Manhattan just could not believe their eyes. Is it true? Where is it? What happened? After eight years, it was gone. "Tilted Arc," a hulking piece of public art generally mistaken for an anti-terrorist barricade or a rusting wind barrier, had been spirited away during the night by a crew of 25, using cranes, drills and three flatbed trucks the size of city blocks.
The departure of "Tilted Arc" marks an unusual defeat for art-world elitists and the artist Richard Serra. He abused as thilistines all those who wished to remove a piece he admitted having diliberately inserted into their midst as a provocation.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, March 23, 1989
Watch for another attempt to install a dark, formless hunk of public art years from now near the end of the bear market.
The Elliott Wave Theorist, August 1985
Popular art, fashion and mores are a reflection of the dominant public mood.
1970's pop art, produced during the bear market, generally consisted of massive hunks of dark iron or stone sculpture, much of which was detested for its ugliness and later removed. In both cases, a common question was, 'Is it really art?' The avant garde is always questioned (properly so), but our concern is not whether it is art, but whether it expresses a light, bright, positive mood or a heavy, dark, negative one. The former is found in bull markets and in extremes at market tops; the latter is found in bear markets and in extremes at market bottoms. |
A PLANE wreck yesterday won Melbourne artist Alexander Knox the nation's richest sculpture prize. Knox beat 229 entrants Australia-wide to the $145,000 Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award with his Death of a White Good. 