THOUGHTS ON the ugly art of Richard Serra. “The man just died, so I’ll keep this brief. I have been tired for decades of this version of the story — the grand artist against the office deplorables. Imagine the workers, wanting to enjoy ‘their precious open space.’ I worked in one of those courthouses for a year during the period when the sculpture bisected the space, and I know how it felt to people who spent their working hours in its vicinity.”

Public art, for basically the entirety of my life, has looked as if it was created in order to demoralize the public, rather than uplift it. Quoth Serra: “I don’t think it is the function of art to be pleasing. Art is not democratic. It is not for the people.”

Except to pay for it, of course. That’s their role. Know your place, peasants! Well, it was a good grift.

Plus, from the comments: “As usual the artist is an egomaniac with a crippling inferiority complex.”