Appellate Law

Art at the First Circuit

By S. COTUS

Turns out most people don?t like the First Circuit?s taste.  ArtBistro reports

A panel of prominent artists, architects, attorneys, and judges, including US Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, picked [Ellsworth] Kelly ? an 84-year-old Upstate New York artist whose work is displayed all over the world ? from a pool of applicants to create something to enliven the new brick-and-glass courthouse rising above Boston harbor....

the fiberglass-and-aluminum panels are among the most valuable works of art in Boston by a living artist, commissioned at a cost of $800,000 in tax dollars, and probably worth millions today. The revelation usually leaves visitors to the John Joseph Moakley courthouse incredulous or bemused.

Whether one likes modern art or not, Kelly?s panels add a dash of cheer. As one court officer standing near the courthouse entrance put it, ?It?s nice to have some paintings here, because there?s so much sadness. There?s a lot of people going to jail.?

At least that one unnamed court officer got it right.  Courts are about sending people to jail, and usually people are sad when, upon application of someone that went to law school, someone is sent to a government-sponsored hole.

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on March 27, 2008 (boomark / email).