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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: Crystal Bridges to Nowhere

Open Thread: Crystal Bridges to Nowhere

by Anne Laurie|  December 14, 20118:12 pm| 37 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Excellent Links, KULCHA!

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As further evidence that we are living in the Second Gilded Age, Jeffrey Goldberg, on Bloomberg View, has an eloquent little class-war assault on the “Moral Blight” of the “Wal-Mart Heiress’s Art Museum“:

… Alice Walton, who is worth about $21 billion, has achieved her dream of building a top-tier museum that unabashedly celebrates American art in the American heartland. Crystal Bridges, in many ways, is an aesthetic success.
__
It’s also a moral tragedy, very much like the corporation that provided Walton with the money to build a billion-dollar art museum during a terrifying recession. The museum is a compelling symbol of the chasm between the richest Americans and everyone else. In 2007, according to the labor economist Sylvia Allegretto, the six Walton family members on the Forbes 400 had a net worth equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans. The Waltons are now collectively worth about $93 billion, according to Forbes.
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The museum, which opened last month, sits in a wooded ravine a few miles from Wal-Mart headquarters. Two main buildings, referred to locally as the armadillos, for their rounded and ribbed roofs, are linked to a series of galleries that ring what will eventually be a spring-fed pond. Crystal Bridges was designed by Moshe Safdie, who is a fine architect, and his museum in some ways resembles a handsome Scandinavian airline terminal. It is certainly the handsomest building ever built with Wal-Mart money. I suspect it is also the only building associated with Wal-Mart that is devoted solely to American-made goods…

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37Comments

  1. 1.

    Benjamin Franklin

    December 14, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    Art, to these people, is the Mini-Series concept.

    Or is it art reproductions, manufactured in China.

  2. 2.

    Ken

    December 14, 2011 at 8:20 pm

    The only architectural flaw is that the doors open directly into a traffic lane, without benefit of sidewalk. I’m sure Safdie didn’t want to do this, but it seems to be mandatory at all Walmart buildings.

  3. 3.

    srv

    December 14, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    Don’t know why they just didn’t use the Walmart architecture.

  4. 4.

    Caren

    December 14, 2011 at 8:32 pm

    It was built with tax payer money.

    Walmart and the Waltons have so much “profit” because they don’t pay their employees a living wage. They actually run seminars where they teach their employees how to apply for government aid.

    So their “profit” is created in part to taxpayers subsidizing their payroll.

    There ought to be a law where if more than 10% of your full time employees are on welfare, you get the shit taxed out of you to pay back the “payroll subsidy”.

    That museum was built from avarice.

  5. 5.

    pseudonymous in nc

    December 14, 2011 at 8:36 pm

    The comments on that post are remarkable: a gathering of serfs, all tugging their collective forelocks at the Walton sprogs, whose most significant contribution to their wealth was choosing the right vagina.

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    December 14, 2011 at 8:41 pm

    @srv:
    Why do you insist on associating it with Walmart? The museum was paid for by the Walton Family Foundation, which is a completely separate entity. Wait, wait. Why are you laughing?

  7. 7.

    JPL

    December 14, 2011 at 8:50 pm

    I don’t begrudge the Walton’s spending their money the way they want BUT it needs to be pointed out that their wealth was acquired by selling cheap goods and using cheap labor.

  8. 8.

    catclub

    December 14, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    “that is devoted solely to American-made goods…” lol

    @JPL: All the old money, as far as I know, is really badly tainted. Carnegie, Mellon, JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt – very evil robber barons.

    MacArthur Foundation? got rich by not paying life insurance claims.

    By comparison, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, the Google guys are clean as the driven snow.

  9. 9.

    PurpleGirl

    December 14, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    @Roger Moore: Where the f*ck do you think they get the money to give to the Foundation?

  10. 10.

    PurpleGirl

    December 14, 2011 at 9:26 pm

    @catclub: What taints foundation money isn’t just how it was made, but also how it was used. So, I’d quibble on Bill Gates… his health care initiatives over seas are okay but he’s one of the big spenders in the school reform movement now and he’s not exactly friendly to public schools.

  11. 11.

    catclub

    December 14, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    @pseudonymous in nc: I just heard an interview with the actress for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

    Rooney Mara – grandchild of billionaire Football owners – on both sides. Naturally, it is tough, being an unknown, to get a part. I bet the director had no idea who her family is.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 14, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    @PurpleGirl:

    Your snarkometer is due for a 10,000 comment checkup!

  13. 13.

    PurpleGirl

    December 14, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I spent close to 16 years at an educational non-profit; 10 of those years was working with the head of the development/fundraising group. On a daily basis I researched foundations and corporate contributions. I tracked where the money was appearing and where it was going.

  14. 14.

    Hill Dweller

    December 14, 2011 at 9:38 pm

    So, it looks like Sen. Benedict Wyden is teaming with Paul Ryan, charlatan extraordinaire, to write health care policy.

  15. 15.

    pseudonymous in nc

    December 14, 2011 at 9:56 pm

    Rooney Mara – grandchild of billionaire Football owners – on both sides. Naturally, it is tough, being an unknown, to get a part. I bet the director had no idea who her family is.

    Quite. I make allowances for Olivia Wilde’s boho childhood, because the nepotistic path for her was into badly-paid paleoliberal journalism.

    his health care initiatives over seas are okay

    Okay is understating it somewhat. But you’re right that Gates, like Jobs, brings a subjectivity to education policy — genius dropouts FTW! — that really doesn’t scale. Most genius dropouts will do okay.

  16. 16.

    kindness

    December 14, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    The guilded titans of the business world have been here for much of our history. Ruthlessness is part of what made them wealthy. Eventually they all sought to buy a ‘good’ family name by building big and incredible things. The Carnagies, the Melons, the Rockefellers. Even the Kochs fund the Met & a few other glittery orbs.

    Does it buy their way to heaven? Jesus said no. But it makes them feel better about their family name. So it is with the Waltons & frankly more power to them. I’d much rather they fund the arts rather than the putrid political whoring the Scafies & Kochs spread.

  17. 17.

    Cacti

    December 14, 2011 at 10:14 pm

    @catclub:

    Rooney Mara – grandchild of billionaire Football owners – on both sides. Naturally, it is tough, being an unknown, to get a part. I bet the director had no idea who her family is

    I’m reluctant to even go see it, because the original Swedish film was so damned good.

  18. 18.

    Kyle

    December 14, 2011 at 10:22 pm

    Crystal Bridges was designed by Moshe Safdie, who is a fine architect, and his museum in some ways resembles a handsome Scandinavian airline terminal.

    That’s a fancy setting for their collection of Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Crap(TM) “artwork”.

  19. 19.

    Cacti

    December 14, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    The comments on that post are remarkable: a gathering of serfs, all tugging their collective forelocks at the Walton sprogs, whose most significant contribution to their wealth was choosing the right vagina.

    I saw the Galtian buzzword “productive” in there, in reference to daughter of Sam.

    And I thought to myself, “Yes, very productive to inherit 20 billion dollars by virtue of your Daddy dropping dead one day.” Must be great work if you can get it.

  20. 20.

    JoeShabadoo

    December 14, 2011 at 11:19 pm

    The Waltons should be paraded around by anyone who talks about increasing taxes and they should be used to blugeon opponents of the estate tax.

    This one family has more money than 30% of Americans. Why? Because Daddy founded a company. You don’t even need to get into Walmarts despicable business practices for someone to realize how much bullshit it is. I remember when I read the top ten richest people and kept going over the same last names thinking how ridiculous it was.

  21. 21.

    Nutella

    December 14, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    I suspect it is also the only building associated with Wal-Mart that is devoted solely to American-made goods

    Does anyone else remember when Sam was alive and made a big deal about Walmart stocking American-made products?

  22. 22.

    johnsmith1882

    December 14, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    anyone else take a peek at the collection? not very impressive, only two or three pieces interesting enough to see in person, but i would definitely go, because admission is free, right? free admission, at least to the 100 million americans that these people have more than combined? oh, no? $55 dollars for an individual membership? well then, screw off alice walton. ps. norman rockwell isn’t modern art, it’s americana, aka cutesy schlock, even if you do own probably the best thing he did

  23. 23.

    brettvk

    December 14, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    @kindness: As an employee of the Waltons, I’d much rather Alice played Lady Bountiful by giving me and my fellow “associates” a 10 cent/hr raise or a more generous health plan instead of buying up American art. Alas, the central organizing concept of Walmart is screwing labor out of poorly educated, rural whites while assuring them that unions are evil smartass godless commies that aren’t nearly as pure, humble and Christian as our wonderful associates. It’s pretty telling, I think, that the family foundation funds “school choice.” And the only financial aid program offered in my break room is for the GED.

  24. 24.

    johnsmith1882

    December 14, 2011 at 11:40 pm

    @Nutella: i certainly do. when walmart arrived in illinois in the late 80’s, that was the big selling point, the reason that you should take your business from another store and give it to this new store. i wonder when that changed, hell, i wonder if it ever was true.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    December 14, 2011 at 11:43 pm

    @catclub:

    I bet the director had no idea who her family is.

    I’m pretty sure David Fincher is not a big football fan, so there’s pretty much zero chance she got the part because he was impressed by who she’s related to. She probably is a very talented actress.

    What her rich family purchased for her was not the actual role, but the ability to take as many acting classes as she wanted, and go on as many auditions as she could, and get the best head shots that she could get taken, and take parts in stage productions for little or no pay, because she didn’t have to worry about paying the rent or keeping up on her car payments. It happens over and over and over again here in Hollywood: you can have two equally talented people, but it’s a hell of a lot easier to “make it” when you can afford to work for free at a 40 hour a week internship because Mommy and Daddy are paying your bills.

  26. 26.

    brettvk

    December 14, 2011 at 11:44 pm

    @brettvk: IOW, the Waltons have the same goals as Scaife, the Kochs, DeVos, etc.; the destruction of the middle class with extraction of their wealth, to create a two-caste society of aristocrats and peons. The Waltons are just working another angle on it. I don’t think they aren’t just as dirty as the Kochs — they just aren’t as visible outside Arkansas.

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne

    December 15, 2011 at 12:04 am

    @johnsmith1882:

    The best painting Rockwell ever did is currently at the White House.

    Frankly, I think Rockwell is greatly underrated — there’s a lot of social commentary in his work that people overlook because on the surface it’s all Mom-n-apple-pie. If nothing else, he is one of the greatest illustrators that America ever produced.

  28. 28.

    johnsmith1882

    December 15, 2011 at 12:51 am

    @Mnemosyne: ach, i stand corrected. (which i knew would happen, yet hit submit anyway. well, it was worth it to be reminded of that, so thanks). and that was kind of hard on rockwell, when really who the venom was aimed at is walton. i retract ‘cutesy schlock’, your honor. (stand by ‘americana’ because when i think american modernity, im thinking man ray and max weber, not norman rockwell.)

  29. 29.

    Mnemosyne

    December 15, 2011 at 1:20 am

    @johnsmith1882:

    Well, if we’re attacking Walton’s taste in art, I have to agree with you that “cutesy schlock” seems to describe it to a T. At least J. Paul Getty had a smidgen of taste, conventional as that taste was.

  30. 30.

    pseudonymous in nc

    December 15, 2011 at 1:21 am

    @Mnemosyne:

    What her rich family purchased for her was not the actual role, but the ability to take as many acting classes as she wanted, and go on as many auditions as she could, and get the best head shots that she could get taken, and take parts in stage productions for little or no pay, because she didn’t have to worry about paying the rent or keeping up on her car payments.

    Exactly. Just as it’s the kids of the well-off who can take the unpaid internships at the publishing companies or the museums or the galleries or wherever because they can stay in daddy’s spare apartment or with friends and family and they don’t need to work college vacations to cover the cost of rent’n’ramen for the next semester.

    It’s self-perpetuatingly awful, and oftentimes illegal, and a lot of my peers, now that they’re in positions to hire people for work experience, make sure that they come with a salary so that they don’t go to the usual crowd.

  31. 31.

    Joel

    December 15, 2011 at 1:34 am

    Julia Louis Dreyfuss, also football Giants money.

  32. 32.

    moderateindy

    December 15, 2011 at 2:58 am

    OK I don’t know enough about the current corporate structure at Wal-Mart to know which, if any of the family has any actual influence over the policies and practices of the company, so I must temper my disgust with this particular woman. For all we know she is in favor of giving the employees benefits and a living wage, but is out-voted by other shareholders. (I think I should get a gold star for being able to write that last line without soiling myself from laughing so hard, but still it is a possibility that she feels that way)
    Also, while it is hardly a great use of the money, at least she is using her money for something that ostensibly enriches society.
    Hell, part of my problem with the uber-rich is that they either do nothing with their cash, making it Dead money which does squat for the economy, or they use their excess cash to speculate or manipulate the market, which along with doing things like creating bubbles, actually does more harm than not circulating at all.
    If the rich actually used large portions of their wealth as consumers it actually would create jobs. Of course with that kind of cash they could never spend it in a hundred lifetimes, regardless of how frivolous the purchases were much less use it all in just one.

  33. 33.

    ThresherK

    December 15, 2011 at 7:56 am

    @pseudonymous in nc: More of the Buster Bluth Syndrom at work: If one is wealthy enough they can try everything without going in to ruin until their particular field of “genius” is discovered.

    The GeneMarksian “Poor Black Kid” had better not blow their one bite at that apple, however.

    @johnsmith1882: I see Mnemosyne beat me to that about Rockwell. Speaking of “making a living in art”, illustration is painting things that magazine publishers and ad men want to buy. He did it well, well enough to have had commercial success which afforded him to illustrate about school integration in 1964.

    That’s what I call doing something with one’s station in life, by comparison to the many ThanksDad and ThanksGramps we’re talking about here.

    PS Let’s not leave out the Four Freedoms. Especially “Freedom of Speech”, which looks like the spitting image of every Tea Party rally we ever saw. Oh, wait…

  34. 34.

    Tyro

    December 15, 2011 at 8:25 am

    The art snobs always have to make an appearance to badmouth Rockwell and explain who he wasn’t really an artist.

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    December 15, 2011 at 8:44 am

    @brettvk: Yes of course the Waltons are “just as dirty as the Kochs.” Weren’t they a major reason why China was given Most Favored Nation status, which resulted in an awful lot of manufacturing leaving the US? And they are one of the the eigtheen families behind the effort to permanently repeal the estate tax:

    http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/18-families-fighting-estate-tax-study-says-1201968.php

  36. 36.

    johnsmith1882

    December 15, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    @Tyro: that’s directed at me. i already clarified above, but i will do so again, because badmouthing rockwell was not my intent. rockwell earned his place in american art history. but his place is not categorized as ‘modern art’. modernity has a specific meaning, tied to existentialism, regarding man’s finding meaning in a meaningless world. rockwell created some meaningful and effective art, but his work does not evoke man questioning ‘what is life all about, really?’

    that’s all i meant to say, but i went a little too far. my venom was directed towards walton, and spilled over, sloshing some on rockwell. rosie the riveter is one of the three works that i would go to see in person.

  37. 37.

    Smedley the Uncertain

    December 15, 2011 at 1:00 pm

    @Cacti: This! All three of them.

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