I Love Modern Art

From Reuters comes this article - Art gallery loses its head, displays plinth-

One of Britain's most prestigious art galleries put a block of slate on display, topped by a small piece of wood, in the mistaken belief it was a work of art.

The Royal Academy included the chunk of stone and the small bone-shaped wooden stick in its summer exhibition in London.

But the slate was actually a plinth -- a slab on which a pedestal is placed -- and the stick was designed to prop up a sculpture. The sculpture itself -- of a human head -- was nowhere to be seen.

Okay. So that's - by any objective viewpoint - HYSTERICAL. But how exactly did this error happen?

The academy explained the error by saying the plinth and the head were sent to the exhibitors separately.

"Given their separate submission, the two parts were judged independently," it said in a statement. "The head was rejected. The base was thought to have merit and accepted.

Awesome. I see this as a testament to the inherent humor in life - and the awe-inspiring power of the small bone-shaped wooden stick in reflecting the human condition.

But if you want to see this as a sign of a wee-bit of pretentiousness in modern art, that works too.