What they don’t know won’t hurt them

A while back we posted about artists heading off shore to exploit their brands in the secluded havens of foreign markets. Movie stars have done it for years and before the internet mostly got away with advertising unappetizing items like booze and fags far from the critical eyes of the home crowd. In Singapore we recently saw another spin on what you might get away with.

Always on the lookout for foyer art we chanced on a pair of the biggest, and possibly ugliest, paintings by James Rosenquist ever and, to top it off, they were tarted up with the gold frames from hell. Had Rosenquist pulled that sort of stunt in New York he probably would have been laughed out of the piazza, but installed in the Far East the Rosenquist reputation was safe. He wasn’t the only one to trust in the adage out of sight, out of mind. Nearby in the courtyard a Roy Lichtenstein sculpture awkwardly looped around the space wishing it had never left the studio.

Images: Left James Rosenquist going for gold at the height of the madness in 1985. Right Roy Lichtenstein brush strokes randomly swooping around the square