So what is it about boys and their toys, or should I say their choo-choo trains?  The LACMA is wishing on a star both figuratively and literally in the hopes of erecting an operational replica of 1943 Baldwin 2900 class steam locomotive and Liebherr LR 1750 lattice boom crane 160' tall x 140' wide by the artist Jeff Koons, as a permanent installation after the museum’s current renovation, designed by the architect Renzo Piano, is finished.  According to LA Times staff writer Diane Haithman, “the yet-to-be-created work, which would be visible for miles, would turn its wheels, whistle and belch steam three times a day.” 

Apparently a grant to study the feasibility of placing Koon’s Train was awarded in excess of one million dollars.  Haithman quotes Koons as saying “that placing the artwork at the center of the LACMA campus would create a sort of town square for L.A., with the train essentially serving the purpose of a small-town clock tower." 

I think it’s pretty cool – why not?  It seems to fit perfectly with Koon’s iconoclastic and eccentric personality and mirabolant career and is certainly in line with other major outdoor installations he’s produced and goes nicely it seems with LACMA’s current ambitions. 

So what does the MCASD (Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego) have to show for its ambitions?  A Richard Serra sculpture.  Not bad you say and normally I would agree with you if it was any number of other extraordinary works by Serra.

I would have even settled for a Torqued Ellipses or Tilted Arc, anything other than the “plop plop fizz fizz” entitled Santa Fe Depot recently installed under the arcade at the Santa Fe Depot station, just outside the doors of the newly renovated MCASD annex.  Listen,can we just this once all agree that not everything that comes out of an artist’s mind or studio is the stuff of pure genius – even for Richard Serra?  Can we all agree that even sometimes the great ones, and certainly Serra is one, “make an error in judgment” if you will?  The goal here is not to criticize the artist or his career but the artwork.