Opinion
In DC, a Rooster by Katharina Fritsch Seems to Stand Guard Over the Nation
THE DAILY PIC: On a rooftop at the National Gallery of Art, a rooster by Katharina Fritsch gets new meaning from our new politics.
Blake Gopnik
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THE DAILY PIC (#1719): One more image from Washington, DC, as it settles into its Trumpist era.
Today’s Pic shows a giant plastic rooster by German artist Katharina Fritsch; first installed in London’s Trafalgar Square in 2013, since late last summer it has been presiding over a new sculpture-garden-cum-terrace at our National Gallery of Art. That terrace is one of a bunch of fabulous art spaces newly carved out of the upper reaches of the NGA. As recently as November 6 I might have been talking about its rooster mostly in aesthetic and art-historical terms.
But everything changed with last year’s election, especially in a city like Washington, now dominated by a man who was rejected by something like 96 percent of its residents.
As it looks out over the city, Fritsch’s creature now seems on guard. I imagine it coming to life to sound the alarm if our nation and values look set to collapse. For Washingtonians, at least, a blue that might once have evoked summer evenings or the art of Yves Klein now stands for a full-fledged state of depression. (Photo by Lucy Hogg)
For a full survey of past Daily Pics visit blakegopnik.com/archive.
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