Fifteen Minutes: Bamboozled in Buffalo by Michael F. Rizzo

A well-researched portrait of artist Billie Lawless and his controversial sculpture “Green Lightning” is revealed in Michael F. Rizzo’s Fifteen Minutes: Bamboozled in Buffalo. Rizzo analyses the process by which the infamously lascivious sculpture was mistakenly commissioned by Buffalo city officials who were offended by the finished product, and swiftly ordered it to be dismantled, resulting in a court case that Lawless eventually won. Revealing in part the conventionality of the staid art establishment, as well as Lawless’s singular vision, this book not only exposes how an artist tricked a powerful clique of public art commissioners, but also celebrates the zeitgeist of 80’s post-modern design, for an inspiring celebration of art’s power to challenge the status quo.