Public Art Index

David Harding has also published an anthology of essays on public art and education in contextual practice in art.

DECADEnt – Public Art Contentious term and Contested Practice
ISBN: 0901904368
Foulis Press, 1997.

Available from http://www.gsa.ac.uk/shop/


Alloway, Lawrence

Problems of iconography and style

1980

How Picasso tried to reclaim ‘Guernica’ for the museum despite its obvious publicness and Greenberg’s criticism that the work is wrecked by its concession to public rhetoric; ‘Broken Obelisk’ in Houston dedicated by its owner to M.L.King with Newman’s consent; if meaning is so volatile what is being commemorated— the artist? ref. to p.a. as an invasion from outer space; three problems affecting p.a.

The public sculpture problem

Studio International, 184 , October ’72, p123-4 – 1972

Comprehensive examination and questioning of ‘art in public places’ and its opposite – public sculpture(art); the artist’s style as content is not sufficient for public sculpture; norcan the artist be the exclusive donor of meaning; the formation of idioms is necessary; review of the failed Peter Stuyvesant ‘City Sculpture Project’; problems of vandalism; review of the “Sculpture in the Environment”, New York and the Venice Bienale ‘Scultura nella Citta’ pieces looked stranded and isolated; description of the New York Public Arts Council project in which the community was the client may be the way forward . (seminal article)

Andrews, Richard

A planning study for Seattle: Art in the civic context

Seattle Arts Commision – 1984

General points about importance of art and society; problems inherent in the commissioning process; the Seattle programme and the setting up of this study

The civic context

Seattle Arts Commision, ’84 1984

Each city’s unique elements which citizens identify with and visitors remember; enduring network of public places which renews and affirms citizen’s sense of place; argument to move away from sculpture in the plaza; city cannot simply be an extension of the museum; guiding texts, “The Social Life of small urban spaces” W.H.Whyte and ‘Image of the City’ K. Lynch.

The public presence of art

Seattle Arts Commision, ’84 1984

Three categories described, The expressive vocabulary of the work; The relationship of the art to its public; ditto to its site.

Apgar, Garry

Redrawing the boundaries of public art

Sculptur, May/June ’92 1992

Proliferation of p.a. has resulted in a mass of articles, books, symposia, school courses, etc etc; repeat of the question of local and citizen control over public art; there is no equivalent neologism in other european languages; there are two issues more transcendent for p.a. than site-specificity, artists rights or collaboration that lie at the core of the controversies in p.a. – Its refusal or acceptance by the community that must pay for it and/or live with it – Its ultimate success or failure aesthetically; excellent discussion of these points and the notion of permanence; excellent conclusion.

Archer, Micheal

Invisible yearnings TSWA 3D New works for public places

Artscribe, January/February ’91, p60-63 1991

Critical analysis of the whole project; too disparate to be an exhibition and for what it inadequately calls,public art, Lingwood aimed to shock; quote from the 10 point manifesto for “Art For Whom” exhibition in the Serpentine in ’78 curated by Richard Cork; TSWA works nevertheless showed that the grammar of context had been learned since ’78; however patterns arise that characterise the whole project as one of desuetude, redundancy and failed powers; the city is inscribed and the highest privilege accorded to the artists is to pick over the carcass.

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Ballantyne, D.S.

Art and architecture

Hampshire Architects Broadsheet No.3, ’74, p4 1974

Argument for the integration of the artist/craftsman/designer as a member of the design team “to raise the general level of human content in a building;” mention of the Env. Design course at Bournemouth.

Bann, Stephen

The garden of the anterior

Studio International, ’76 1976

Bernard Lassus’s attempt to establish a new ‘Poetics’ of landscape; developed the notion of the ‘immeasurable’ and the loss of ‘wildness’ the otherness of nature the necessary balance between nature and culture; research into the activities of ‘les habitants paysagistes’ and the relationship to ethnographic studies, Levi-Strauss etc.; crucial distinction between ‘visual’ and ‘tactile’ scales.

Concepts of space in urban design, architecture and art

1973

Extensive review of the oeuvre of Bernard Lassus; a classicist in the sense he is searching for general laws that can be applied to problems of form and construction; he poses the basic problematic of French classical tradition – the opposition between nature and culture- and reviews various means of alleviating the transition of one to the other. Find a great resource for French traditions at Lingua Estrangeira.

Bernard Lassus-Ambience, ’71 ?, p21-23

1971

Describes Lassus’s move from the individual work of art to an exhaustive programme of research which he developed at his Centre de Recherche d’Ambiance; work is set squarely in the French tradition; the principle of ‘retarded transition’ where satyrs occupy the outer edge of a French garden and the peaceful deities reign in the centre; descriptions and critical look at several of Lassus’s projects; comments on his ‘tactile’ and ‘visual’ scales.

Barret-Leonard, John

Thinking through the public

Artist Newsletter, March ’94 1994

The word ‘public’ is not defined and most public art merely equated with with a public site; ‘public sphere’ is a non-physical space of meeting and debate; public space can be seen as a discursive realm – a site of exchange pointing to process rather than location; the place where the public come into being; it is fragmented not homogeneous.

Bayer, Herbert

Mexican sculpture

Interior Design, May ’69, p318-319 1969

Herbert Bayer, ex Bauhaus, on Route of Friendship motorway into Mexico City for the Olympics; 11 miles long; pieces every one to two miles; eighteen artists from the 5 continents; plea for sculpture on motorways; excellent comments on scale and context and the unsuitability of some of the works; no architect involved only Mathias Goeritz who mediated between the artists and the Olympic Committee and contractors; difference between ‘large’ and ‘monumental’

International sculpture sysmposium: Mexico City

Interior Design, February ’70, p115 1970

Gigantic planning projects lie ahead; architects must collaborate with many specialisms; they must become generalists and universalists; the artist must become an influential member of this team at the inception; the artists work will cease to be ?art for art’s sake’ and establish contact with the masses through total plastic planning; call for the artist to be part of urban planning to raise the level of artistic expression.

Beardsley, John

Personal sensibilities

Artforum

Begins with defining the difference between art in public places and public art; deals with new works that include non-art elements which succeed as p.a.; Serra’s work however fails as p.a. as it must also be local; Civil War generals face south in the North and face north in the South.

Berman, Avis

Public sculpture’s new look

Art News, September ’91, p102-109 1991

General examination of p.a. in the USA with interviews and quotes from artists; biggest change in the 70’s and 80’s has been that the concept of the monument was altered; large amount of low quality works but, ‘How many good works do you see in galleries?’ (Nancy Holt); GSA began by commissioning world famous artists but the quantity of opps outstripped that policy; “big name artists do not guarantee quality”; collaboration has produced many good projects but also some calamities; architects have become the skilled antagonists of the artist.

Benjamin III, Lloyd W

The art of designed environments in the Netherlands: An overview

Chapter 1, 1983

The Netherlands has always been a designed environment because it is a condensed, high density space threatened by rivers and the sea; very poor post war housing led to the Government instituting % for art to embellish buildings and env. design was developed as a discipline at the art schools; references to De Stijl and Gesamtkunstwerk; Asger Jorn set up Cobra to oppose the academy and De Stijl; Constant attempted to use Gesamkunstwerk on a city-wide scale and the “Situationists” declared that “society must be restructured through a collective creativity”; the Arnhem Academy was the main focus for Env. Des. education; Bauhaus had an overwhelming influence on art education; art, the product of anonymous teamwork replaced the personal independent work of art.

Berkson, Bill

Seattle sites

Art in America, July ’86, p68-82/ 133-135 1986

No body of work by a single artist has brought as much attention to Seattle and Washington State as the p.a. developed over the last 13 years; description of recent art, social and economic factors in Seattle and full detailed description of the p.a. programme; architects now seek out artists to work with.

Bloomer, Kurt

Spatial language: The ornament of the Harold Washington Library

Inland Architect, March ’92, p48-50 1992

Thomas Beeby suggested in 1965 that modern architects did not abandon ornament but rather moved away from ‘structure-ornamented’ to ‘ornament-constructed’ – the entire building became a free standing element of ornament; this however reduced the narrative potential of architecture; develops justification for the use of ornament on modern buildings.

Bolton, Richard

Art and opposition

Sculptur, May/June ’92, p16-17 1992

The marginality forced on artists seems to have created an oppositional imperative on artists – polemics rather than analysis – confrontation rather than collaboration and solidarity with audience; the art world will play a marginal role only as a site for ritualised liberation; for a real conversation to take place between art and audience artists need to learn the art of thinking inside other people’s heads.

Boys, Jos

Artistic licence

Building Design, July 1 ’83, p2 1983

Description of Art and Arch’re conference at the Whitchapel; presentation by Martin Goodrich, Freeform, Peter Dunn and Lorraine Leeson, Docklands Poster Project , David Harding, Glenrothes and Eileen Adams.

Brett, David

The possibilities for a public art

Circa, May/June ’89 1989

Public Art; a central issue of modern culture; what we think of as public realms are limited by what we think of as private; it is in response to this that community arts, community architecture; participatory design and self-build came into being.

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Carr, Richard

Harding’s legacy to Glenrothes

1978

Describes the work of Harding over 10 years at Glenrothes.

Clothier, Peter

Public art reframed

Arts Magazine, Summer ’90, p44-47 1990

On the work of Serge Spitzer in Phoenix; he declined to send in proposals – which inclined the Board of the Biltmore Financial Centre to select him for the commission – until he was able to visit the site; excellent critique of a single work and constructive comments from the clients and contractors.

Coleman, Nicols

Relief in site for public art

New Art Examiner, November ’84, p72-74 1984

Public art in a period of intense re-evaluation as it is an area in which controversy almost seems obligatory; its goal today is edification rather than deification; if it glorifies anything, it is the artist and the wisdom of those who paid for it; Thalacker has decided what art has gone into Fed. buildings for 14 years; details of GSA and Nat, Endowment p.a. works; Vietnam Memorial comes when monumental work was thought to be exhausted.

Conant, Howard

Environmental sculpture in the USA; High art or cultural shrubbery

Leonardo Vol.9, ’76, p41-43 1976

Excellent critique on sculpture in the urban environment by asking a series of exacting questions; comes out in praise of Sylvette at NYU, Trees at the Chase Manhattan and `Reclining Figure? at the Lincoln Centre; supporting reference to the work of SITE.

Cork, Richard

Site reading: British art in public spaces

Art in America, September ’87, p145-151 1987

Despite growing energy and resources p.a. remains a high risk venture; p.a. is subject to a whole battery of new complications; detailed description of the TSWA 3D projects including Gormley, Whiteford, Wyllie, Wilson, Haseldon, etc.

Crosby, Theo

Patrons of the arts

Architects Journal, January 18 ’84, p24-27 1984

Modernist split of artists and architects, good description and reasons for this; architectural education,deskilling of a great industry; artist’s field narrowed to the gallery; murals aggressively attack the damage of arch’ts and planners; the values of a building or a place are more important than an individuals ego, though the ego must find a place; that is the architect’s role – scrambling egos.

Sculpture and architecture

Effects of technology

Interior Design , May ’69, p320 1969

The irony of sitting in council flats in dreary estates watching a man on the moon on TV is really unbelievable? argument for investment in the environment equivalent to that of technology and the use of technology to improve the environment.

Structure and decoration

Art Monthly; supplement on the Art and Architecture conference at the ICA in ’82

Architects have cheerfully sacrificed their old allies, artists, poets, craftsmen for the illusion of control over an industrial process; they can only manipulate about 7% of the total cost they can choose a mirror wall from a catalogue or become again a social catalyst.

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Danto, Arthur C.

Art News, p208

Avoids public art conferences because of the invective between elitists and philistines; usefulness of art denied when this was hammered out in the 18th cent. Kant’s ‘Critique of Aesthetic Judgement’; art and utility are not mutually exclusive; fountains of Rome exalt their art by making a powerful statement about their function; Burton et al do not do this; public are being taught lessons thru’ artistic practical jokes; plea for a genuine p.a. that serves genuine social needs.

Davis, D.

Public art; The taiming of the vision

Art in America, May/June ’74, p84-85 1974

Argument for funding to support the individual artist to develop a private art; reference to a twentieth cent. dream of a public art Futurism and Dadaism and post. rev.Soviet art; retreat from this began with Surrealism; post WW2 return to the optimism of the individual; art can only succeed as public art with complete freedom; rise in public funding has tended to reduce the essential in art.

Deutche, Rosalyn

Uneven development of public art in New York city

Marginalisation and Contemporary Culture, ’90, p107-140 1990

New public spaces in New York are objects of contest over uses, they permit access by certain social groups for selected purposes while excluding others; art cannot presume the pre-existence of a public but must help to produce one; definitions of p.a. differ from artist to artist but they are held together by a single thread – it is art plus function; series of quotes from artists on function; thoughts on urbanism, space and abstract space; detailed description of Wodiczko’s ‘Homeless Vehicle’ project.

Dickson, Malcolm

David Harding

Variant, Spring ’91, p41-48 1991

In depth interview on Glenrothes, Dartington-Art and Social Contexts, Glasgow – Environmental Art, Craigmillar and the evolution of public and community art in the UK.

Dusinberre, Deke

Notes on an unfinished fountain

Art Monthly, May ’86, No.96, p2-3 1986

Description of Daniel Buren’s “Les Deux Plateaux” sculpture fountain in the courtyard of Le Palais Royale, Paris and the controversy surrounding it; the French gov’t’s art policy, Les Grandes Projets and Jack Lang’s implementation of it; driving modern art into the heart of the city causes Parisians real pain.

Dwyer, Gary

Honest contextualism

Conference on Landscape and Art, Manchester, 1989

The tyranny of the colour slide which can only show objects without context; art and architecture are perceived as objects, landscape and urban design cannot be so; not things but places.

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Eddington, Gordon

Art and development – Making good buildings better

Estates Gazette, November 30 ’91, p68-69/ 108 1991

Article on Public Art by the chairman of a development company, Lynton, in a developers magasine; straightforward description of examples of art and arch’re and how these are good for the environment; survey of users of Guildford’s Tunsgate Square Shopping centre on the Public Art there was positive.

Elsen, Albert

Public rights and critics failures

Art News, p174

The public siting of a Henry Moore cost the mayor of Toronto his job; art critics rarely take the public’s interest for fear of offending the art world; there was communal hatred for Serra’s Paris piece yet it was supported by critics who do not live there; critics should return to the site five years after the work is completed.

Esterow, Milton

How public art becomes a political hot potato

Art News, January ’86, p75-79 1986

Description of Robert Irwin’s contribution to p.a.; reference to Irwin’s book “Being and Circumstance” in which he asks ‘can we claim mounds of grass as sculpture?’ and ‘what good is the word sculpture if it includes everything?’; Irwin deals with seventeen p.a. projects.

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Foote, Nancy

Sightings on siting

1980

Oldenberg may have been the first to recognise the failure of recent p.a., while it physically inhabits public territory it retains its aloofness; deals with the notion of site-specific in works by Sonfist,Tacha, Fleischner, Smithson, Morris; audience as collective not individual; use of water and the non-aesthetic content in p.a.

Foster, Hal

Sculpture after the fall

Gt. Wall of China an allegory for sculpture’s ruinous state; Ladders, Bridges, Staircases – mundane things used in Minimalist art after ridding sculpture of its commemorative and anthropomorphic forms; an artist who uses stairs is more likely to be concerned with context; Armajani sees his works as a marriage of the useful and the fine.

Fuchs, R.H.

On principles in environmental design and public art

’73, p215-219 1973

Plea for open structures as env. design and not the trad. monument which focuses space towards itself; env. structures open out of aesthetic conviction and to accommodate a variety of social functions; post WW1 new artistic and social concerns developed and a call for the functional integration of the fine arts with technology and architecture; the latter does not have the intellectual and visual resources to tackle the urban problem alone; descriptions of specific works and statements, Mondrian, Peter Struycken and others and comparison of different modes.

Forgey, Benjamin

It takes more than an outdoor site to make sculpture public

1980

Public art activities a sub-culture; Gen. Services Admin. in the USA the most influential element in the development of public art; beginning in ?72 after a 6 year hiatus, 140 works commissioned; description of exhibitions anf conferences; clear position of 19th cent. artists in Washington DC in contrast to today?s.

Frampton, Kenneth – Petherbridge, Deanna (Editor)

Art and architecture

Art Monthly; supplement on the Art and Architecture conference at the ICA in ’82

Late 19 cent. public architecture was unthinkable without sculpture; relations now between architects and fine artists at their lowest ebb; ‘barely veiled hostility of most mod. arch’ts to contemporary art is common knowledge’; excellent argument established through examples; decline of the `public realm’, Hannah Arendt, `The Human Condition’, has become a problem for arch’re let alone art; need for a public language for arch’re as well as art; some contemporary art has tended to recover a pub. arch’re, Smithson, Heizer,etc harbour, earthwork fortress etc; proposed solution “Unsentimental Regionalism”.

Francia, Peter de

Talk on public art

Royal College of Art Conference, ’80’s 1980

Fundamental difficulty in what is in fact truly public; modern cities lack focal points; the French describe bridges, viaducts etc. as ‘ouvrages d’art’ literally ‘art works’ or ‘works of art’; we call them public works; no opportunity for contemplation in modern cities; proposes a mass of public art in one or two towns over a ten year period to ascertain public response to find out more about a visual syntax of a visual language.

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Gablik, Suzi

The ecological imperative

Art Journal, Summer ’92 1992

The enduring monuments to our age will be the hazardous remains of our industry and technology – vast gardens of ashes and poisons’; descriptions of artists working in this field and a call to artists to engage in it; redefine the self as relational rather than separate and self-contained – bring about a new stage in our social and cultural evolution.

Making art as if the world mattered: Some models of creative partnership

Utne Reader, July ’89, p71-76 1989

Great deal of modern art bears witness to humanity’s estrangement, isolation and disconnectedness; alienation subsides when we are aware of the connectedness with others and with nature; descriptions of works that bear this out; Wodiczko, Lacy, Malpede, Rollins; the artists here are anchored in the social and the aesthetic; the paradigm of social conscience replaces that of creative genius.

Gardiner, Stephen

Painting the town

1975

Upbeat description of New York and Los Angeles murals compared to the more modest UK murals; colour photographs including John Upton’s at the Albany Deptford.

Grasskamp, Walter

Invasion from the artist’s studio

Glagow Garden Festival Catalogue, ’88, p20-22 1988

Extraterrestial art being landed in city centres and being rejected wholesale by the public as a way of getting back at political structures in which they have very little say; modern art was not predestined for display in public places as its origins derive from a contempt for the bourgeoisie; instead of compensating for the disfigurement of the city with pleasing works, artists have made matters worse through abstract, incomprehensible and brutalistic works.

Greene, Lesley

Going public

Arts Express, March ’86, p14-15 1986

There always have been artists working in public as part of a continuing tradition since the 19 cent.; they are often unshown in galleries,no publicity, subservient to their clients to the detriment of their own imagination and creativity; the change in the last decade is the recognition that there is a legitimate role for artists outside the gallery and thus the direction of support for this has come from the ACGB and the RAA’s; important dev. has been the residency leading to a p.a. work; artists have surprised themselves by the challenge of site and place; need for artist/arch’t collaboration; the only true collab. did not come to fruition that of Gavin Jones and Will Allsop for the Riverside Stuios.

Guppy, James

Public art and its public response

1980

Public art and economic good, Glenrothes and Milton Keynes; ACGB increase in funds to p.and community art; increase in the appointment of Town Artists eg Portsmouth and Swansea; identifies differing roles for artists but need for research into public response, old and new areas of towns; studies in the USA in ?73 revealed that 89% felt that the arts were essential and most people reacted favourably to cont?y p. sculpture.

Guthrie, Derek

David Harding: Scottish town artist

New Art Examiner, March ’76, p3-11 1976

Incisive interview exploring wider issues of the artist employed by towns and cities; description of the effect of the work on the workmen on the building sites and how they became involved in skilful work and a sense of ownership.

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Halbreich, Kathy

Stretching the terrain: Sketching twenty years of public art

Going Public, ’88, p9-12 1988

Every definition of Public Art has undergone scrutiny and change since ’66; equal stress is now being put on both `public’ and `art’; examination of L.A.’s % for art policy – Public Art may manifest itself in three ways, On-site art in public space, On-site cultural programme, On- site art spaces or cultural facilities; descriptions of the works of a number of artists working from the inception on large scale developments and infrastructures; many artists have made the social imperative of p.a. a primary focus.

Hancock, Graham

Master of town art

1975

Major, probably definitive, article on D. Harding Town Artist of Glenrothes new town; Britain’s towns sprouting artists; description of the post. graduate apprentice scheme set up by Harding and Glenrothes Dev. Corp; places to which these artists have gone after working in Glenrothes; interview with the General Manager of the new town; ref. to the evangelising work of Harding in propagating the notion of town employing artists; interview with Harding; point made of the community as client.

Harding, David

Some developments in art education with reference to public art

Art Monthly, June ’86, p30-33 1986

Rise in the number of courses in art schools in the field of p.a.; attempt to define p.a. more precisely,using a wide number of references; need to do this if art schools are to offer education in it; examination of a number of courses , mainly postgraduate.

The art of building in Glenrothes

Concrete Quaterly, ’75, p12-17 1975

Description by Harding of his role in the new town of Glenrothes from 1968, stressing commitment to working in residential areas rather than prestige city centre sites; creating opportunities for local people to contribute; engaging graduating students to work with him on a postgraduate year.

Hayman, D’Arcy

Design for living: How art shapes the environment

Interior Design, December ’74, p767 1974

Poetic plea for the artist to be more fully integrated in to society; Basho haiku and quote from Wilde; artist as ecologist and art as environment; how art functions in relating man to his environment.

Heartney, Eleanor

The dematerialisation of public art

Sculpture, March/April ’93, p45-49 1993

With the removal of ‘Tilted Arc’ went a whole battery of assumptions about p.a. the discussion shifted away from the notion of the site-specific towards the community as context; art in context must be seen as the latest volley in the argument the nature of art and the nature of public space, Russian Constructivism, Situationism, Fluxus, Conceptualism; list of key projects in recent past; local artists who know and understand local communities and develop long-term relationships with them most suited to this work.

Hochfield, Sylvia

The moral rights (and wrongs) of public art

Art news, May ’88, p143-146 1988

Description of blacks attempting to change the imagery in a ’67 mural because of perceived stereotyping; multiplying controversies keeping pace with the proliferation of p.a.; lists such controversies; e.g. a light work in Tacoma by Stephen Antonakos cuased such a storm that the voters rejected the % for art ordinance ; artists rights and the Berne Convention; new art-law specialism needed in p.a.

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Jenks, Charles

Some thoughts on the missing element in the unity of art and architecture: Content

Art Monthly; supplement on the Art and Architecture conference at the ICA in ’82

Marriage as a metaphor for the condition of A and A; arch’re became agnostic; % for art decreased from the Parthenon to Chartres to St. Peters; today joyless co-habitation.

Jones, Susan

Art in architecture and landscape

Artist Newsletter, July ’84, p19-21 1984

Report on NW Arts/DOE enquiry into Art in Public Places; ACGB Art In Public Places set up in ’76 directed by Alastair Warman in the first years; few projects taken up in this 50% matching offer; however RAAS were more enthusiastic and some prioritised p.a. for expansion; ACGB ‘Glory of the Garden’ report virtually ignored these developments and moved sharply away from p.a.

Joselit, David

Lessons in public sculpture

Art in America, December ’89 1989

Description of the Stuart Collection – the sculptures commissioned for the campus of UC San Diego; the piece by Niki de St. Phalle has become the mascot of the university and the centrpiece of the annual spring festival.

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Kardon, Janet

Street wise/street foolish

Urban Encounters ; Catalogue, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Penn. , March ’80, p8-14 1980

No satisfactory definition of p.a. but Land Art in remote areas is certainly not p.a.; conty movement begun in the USA with Chicago’s Picasso conceived, installed WPA “nobody asked for the works and no rationale beyond the self-defined needs of the artist”; now the works are based on more sharply focussed needs; 100 works included in the Cat. 21 works of special significance to offer guidelines for the future; lack of attention given to how a work enters a community; observation on how we perceive and accommodate our surroundings good or bad; competition between artists and architects; how modernist tradition has not provided us with much latitude for p.a.

Keller

Lieberknecht & Vetter

Kunst am bau: Art and user participation, Ekistics 288, May/June ’81 1981

Report about an art and buildings project at the Techinical Univ. of Berlin; Kunst am Bau began in the late ’20s developed by artist organisations to re-establish employment opps. lost as a result of functionalist architecture; Fed. Gov’t in’76 approved a programme for the “improvement of the social position of artists”; this was criticised by architects and established Artists; at the Tech, Univ, the 0-5% was used for a comprehensive concept relevant to the needs of the members of the Univ.; scheme involved the users in the designing and making the works of art.

Kelley, Jeff

Art in place

Headlands Catalogue, September ’89, p34-38 1989

In the 70’s an important threshold was crossed from site into place; the sites of art became the arts of place; the changed perceptions of site and place indicates a move to a more social practice; development of this theme including descriptions of a number of projects.

Kemp, Liz

Blackness public art project- Dundee

Artist Newsletter, June ’83, p20-21 1983

Scottish Dev. Agency provide the initial money which encouraged an experimental attitude on the part of the Dist. Council Tech. Services Dept.; capital and revenues money plus MSC plus artists; Env”l Art Team set up in ’82 having a community remit; descriptions of projects and increase of staff to 4 full-time and 6 part-time artists; plea for art schools to educate artists to take up an influential role in building the urban env’t.

Kenton, Mary Jean

Lines forms colours planes

New Art Examiner, April ’93, p23-25 1993

Art in Pittsbugh’s new Midfield Terminal; five major artists to work on an environmental scale; all in the minimalist tradition; the works are so well integrated that the public has hardly noticed that they are there.

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Lassus, Bernard

Enlivening the visual environment

Interior Design, August ’69, p528 1969

In ’61 proposed two scales of external vision the tactile and the visual; we orientate ourselves within the tactile; people need to decorate; we need to do this to enhance the ‘proximate’ tactile scale; the visual must use the landscape, texture and colour; examples given of these.

Leucking, Stephen

What’s public about public sculpture?

New Art Examiner, November ’84, p39-43 1984

Controversy has all but disappeared; now Philistine to decry a newly planted signpost of culture; formal aesthetics has become a stereotype and only the publicity given to a work allows the adjective ‘public’ to be attached to the work; it is art that is publicly present rather than art which is publicly significant; good analysis of the needs of p.a.

Linker, Kate

Public sculpture 2: Provisions for the paradise

Artforum

Local arts council registers of artists infer the use of local artists—a territorial tool; broad range of councils and organisations involved in p.a.; growth of commissioning policies and boards of selection; preparation, groundwork and advocacy are almost now as equal to the selection of the artists and the work; ’74 complaints by NY Planning Board at the installation of Rosenthal’s ‘Five-in-One’; two similar cases described; wouldn’t happen now as procedures have been altered to maximise community control; (written before “Tilted Arc”); a victory for popularity over quality signal a defeat over p.a.’s first broad educative urges; it is up to the artist to find creative solutions to quality, accessibility and challenge; description of several works which meet these demands; the two articles are a tribute to `an inspired period of artistic opportunity’.

Provision and persausion in US public art

Art Monthly; supplement on the Art and Architecture conference at the ICA in ’82

The public demands some clear evidence of idea, reasoning or rationale behind a work; the evidence of quality of purpose…the ‘why’ of the work is the key way in to the situation; to be able to discuss their intentions and engage the viewer; public officials have been persuaded of the financial benefits that accrue from the ‘art filled community’; to the transforming social function of art has been added a transforming economic function; actual costs of art are minor; lists of benefits listed.

Public sculpture; Pursuit of the pleasurable and profitable paradise

Artforum, March ’81, p64-73 1981

Popularity of 19 cent. sculpture and memorials, 30,000 turned out for the opening of one in Philadelphia! only the glitterati for Serra’s ?Rotary Arc’ in NY; difficulties implicit in the funding label ‘Art in Public Places’; WPA about employment first; US the greatest patron in the West; the private sector points the way to public use; the builder as patron was novel to the US; architecture’s dominance and the architects resentment at intrusive art; p.a. has to integrate with two hostile enemies, community and architecture; ends with examples of collaborative projects.

Lippard, Lucy

Gardens- Some metaphors for a public art

Art in America, November ’81, p136-150 1981

In praise of Robert Smithson; Spiral Jetty emblematic for all earthworks; p.a. for him had become land reclamation where ?remote futures meet remote pasts’; examination of ancient earth and stoneworks in relation to p.a.; ?lurking pagan religious anthropomorphism’ which Smithson felt he had overcome, is the subject dealt with.

Luke, Timothy

Luke, Timothy

Art and the environmental crisis; From commodity aesthetics to ecological aesthetics Art Journal, p72-76, 1992

Ecological and scientific development of the above listing 20th cent, artists who have developed ecology related practices; another call to engagement.

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Macavera, Brian

The emperor’s new clothes: Gormley, TSWA3D and Derry’s walls

Art Monthly, ’87, p31-32 1987

Criticism of the selection of Anthony Gormley to make a work on the walls of Derry and the claims made for the work by James Lingwood and Mel Gooding; English artist tackling the Irish question in an Irish context; the work could have been placed on Hadrian’s Wall as it is site-general not site-specific.

McGill, Douglas

Sculpture goes public

New York Times Magasine, April 27 ’86, p42-45 / p66-67 / p85-87 1986

Called sculpture but these works more often resemble furniture, gardens, plumbing systems, etc. etc.; nonetheless planners and developers are increasingly commissioning them; lists of works and quotes from artists; p.a. linked to a breakdown of modernism; arch’ts often cause the artist the greater problems than the rest of the professions involved.

McGonagle, Declan

A new necessity: The importance of art outside the gallery

Artscribe (Interview), Summer ’90, p63-66 1990

Preference for the term ‘social art’ rather than ‘public art’; emphasises the local and participation in the ‘locale’; advertising takes no account of the differences between peripherality or centrality, both are respected and addressed in the same way.

Art as an issue of place

Alba, ’88, p14-17 1988

Warning of the recent ambiguous references to the notion of the ‘regional’ since it reinforces the idea of the ‘subsidiary’ — a new taste for a jaded metropolitan palate; attack on community arts; the culture of locality is problematic and echoes some of the significant issues in contemporary art which are ethically rather than aesthetically based.

MacMillan, Duncan

A new public sculpture by Miro

Art Monthly, ’82, p3-4 1982

Sculpture in Houston “Personnage et Oiseau” scaled up x10 from an assemblage made in ’69; always committed to public work; his assemblages of the 50’s were called Projects for a Monument; descriptions of his other public works such as the many ceramic walls; good obsevations of what constitutes p.a.

Macnamara, Martin

A study in collaboration

Allbright, Fall/ Winter ’91, p3-7 1991

Detailed descriptions of artist/arch’t collaborations for the art centre at Allbright Univ., Philadelphia.

Marking, Stacy

Art city

1973

Excellent examination of New York murals; comparisons made with the more political murals of other US cities; theoretical issues raised about elitism, commodity mural painting and big business sponsorship; comparisons made with London murals, romantic, soft.

Martin, Rupert

Spaces, places and landmarks

Environmental art, p53

The best works recognise that the place is more important than the object and that any intervention is at best semi-permanent; the sculpture park sustains the notion of the 18 th cent. of art being a tasteful adjunct to nature; the urge to possess the land caused people to mark with it earth works obelisks, etc. yet the most enduring works are those that live in the imagination and belong to the whole culture like the Songlines of the Aboriginals; from 50’s art and landscape to today.

Maxwell, Robert

The trouble with abstraction

Art Monthly; Supplement on paper given at the RCA seminar on the Modern Movement

Mierle

A journey: Earth/City/Flow

Art Journal, Summer ’92 , p12-14 1992

Excellent description of most of the projects by the artist from ’69; major work till the year 2000 the landfill site on Staten Island – 3000 acres will create the highest point on the eastern seaboard of the USA; call to artists to transform the earth – flood with creativity the environmental and infrastructure processes.

Miles, Malcolm

State of the art

The growth of local agency funding for p.a. took away the control of it from the art funding bodies; this opened the way for a spate of poor work as artists sacrificed their principles and aesthetic judgements; the art establishment have been trying to regain the initiative ever since; eg. public art agencies, etc.

Commissioning for the locality

Artist Newsletter, June ’89, p27-29 1989

Descriptions of differing ways in which p.a. works come about; detailed examination of projects under each heading.

Millar, Mansell

The way forward

Circa, ’90, p25-28 1990

Public art developments in Belfast with detailed references to Barcelona’s p.a. and regeneration.

Millar, Roland

Public art; Who needs it?

Art Monthly, ’93, p7-9 1993

Good questioning overview of the present situation in the UK on public art agencies Arts Councils, RAA’s, % for art; looks at Birmingham’s Convention Centre; seems to separate making public art from making art.

Millichip, Paul

Artists-designers needed to integrate the environment

Interior Design (Quarterly supplement Integral Environment), May ’69, p315 1969

Criticism of our environment; blame put down to architects, planners, educationalists, gov’t legislation,etc.; need for artists designers to be educated to fill the gap at human scale and detail and to act as advocate for the users; plug for Barnet course in Environmental Design; demand for quality and call for urgent creative approach.

Note: Introduction to this magasine’s first supplement on visual arts, architecture and planning includes notice of the introduction of the New Organisation to bring together all involved in the development of the built environment. Also note about the new supplement to encourage debate and comment about art architecture and planning and also the sociology and biology of cities.

Morgan, Sally

Beyond the aesthetic adventurer

Circa, May/June ’89 1989

Description of the problems of teaching public and community art in the light of the 20th century condition of the artist.

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Nahas, Dominique

Saarbrucken’s ‘Hafeninsell’

Sculptur, May/June ’92 1992

A critical examination of this huge work in a derelict industrial area on the River Rhine; taken as a whole it is not so much a piece of public art but a fully functioning commemorative and evocative public space.

Nairn, Ian

Hippos: Design for laughing

Sunday Times, January 26 ’75, p12 1975

Description of Harding’s work in Glenrothes and specifically Stan Bonnar’s Hippos and how an image can become a powerful symbol of a town; refs. to the post grad apprentice scheme; how the artist can guide and smooth the way for people to make their own contributions to their environment.

Neat, Tim

Public Art

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Ollie, Jennifer

Collaboration

Art Monthly, ’82, p3-4 1982

Report on artist and arch’t collaborations sponsored by the American Arch’l League for its centennial celebrations; three categories Typical — architect and decorator; New Balance– artist and arch’t working closely to achieve less separation between the arch’re and the work of art; Conceptual– as an approach to urbanism and visions of the city; very pessimistic about the results.

Oliver, Cordelia

Reinstating the artist in town planning

South China Morning Post, November ’75 1975

Inbuilt variety in Victorian towns built out of older settlements; not the case with new towns; not surprising that they gave rise to the idea of employing artists; growing nucleus of artists eager to act as powerhouses of communal creativity; description of the apprenticeship scheme at Glenrothes ; interview with D. Harding and description of the work in Glenrothes; involvement of citizens in the creation of their own town.

Overy, Paul

Art at work

Art Monthly, ’86, p12-13 1986

Description of Paolozzi’s mosaic work on the London Underground; most p.a. is crude or aggressive; like the majority of painted murals and public sculpture’s muted dumbness; p.a. is rarely stared at but seen obliquely in preoccupation with other things.

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Partners for Livable Places

Places as art

December 10 ’84 1984

Need for places rich in messages that provide a sense of belonging; most places have never been maximised; examples of places that have achieved this; manifesto of the group P. for L.P.s; description of a multi-stage process approach to a project.

Pasmore, Victor

Artist and architect at Peterlee: Integration and individuation

Unpublished, May ’69 1969

Demands for mass housing has led to ignoring the artistic and psychological factor or to be superficially applied; appointed in 1954 as a Senior Officer with full authority as a member of the design team for the SW Area housing; the artist is especially equipped to to deal with new spatial structures but necessary to adopt anonymity and reject specialised individual expression in this; the space time of cubism should be applied to planning and urban design. there is also the need for the spontaneity and diversity of the individual; description of the Sunny Blunts Pavilion accompanied by a description of it by one of the architects.

Patricios, N.N.

Concepts of space in urban design, architecture and art

Leonardo, Vol.6, ’73, p311-318 1973

New approach to urban design urged in the wake of new contributions from psychologists, anthropologists and others on the revision of our traditional concepts of space; two categories of space have to be distinguished, physical and mental; concepts of space differ culturally and examples are given of how this has influenced urban design; concepts further developed by subdividing mental space into three types; the symbolic,the biological and the mathematical; examples given of how they have been embodied in the layout of towns, building design and painting.

Petherbridge, Deanna

The possibility and problemmatic of permanence

Art Monthly, ’88, p7-8 1988

The phenomenon of accelerated change –regeneration, decay, changing patterns of use– doesn’t mean that the city can ingest temporary works of art that are self-defining and generate their own context; this view promoted by TSWA 3D and Artangel; the defacto impermanence of urban contexts doesn’t mean they are ‘provisional’; p.a. presupposes permanence and cont’y p.a. signals change.

Making space – Art works beyond the gallery

Art Monthly, ’88, p27-29 1988

Report on the conference at the ICA on 20 Feb. ’88 organised by James Lingwood after TSWA 3D ’87; question of ‘who is the public?’; TSWA 3D was a response to the negative perceptions of p.a.; art cannot redeem public space simply by occupying it; those works in galleries were the least successful; all works disrupted the site and the work became the place; Jan Hoet’s ’86 ‘Chambres D’Amis’ and Kaspar Konig’s ’77 and ’87 Munster Projects; p.a. had been a movement of and for artists to escape the confines of the institutional and commercial art world, now it is fast being appropriated by curators acting as entrepreneurs.

Public commissions and new concerns for sculpture

Part of the dynamic of radically extending the cultural field of art is a concern for legibility, relevance and context; use of symbolism, metaphor, narrative and wit opens up wider possibilities of interaction and interpretation this is why p.a. is an issue once again; context is central to the discussion of p.a. but they can change in time; p.a. that has survived is that which has fitted most tightly to the original brief.

Sculpture up front

Art Monthly, ’80, p7-15 1980

Very rich year for commissions but many examples of architects not wanting to involve artists, of delaying commissions till the very end, of being dismissing of artists’attitudes and intentions; ref. to art schools attitude to p.a. as adulterating ‘pure art’; good points on competitions and the selection of artists and on professional training or lack of it; evidence of German architects being desultory about commissioning because of the mandatory pressure of % for art (and no doubt the mundane results?); attack on the RA sculptors with ref. to the ?Monty’ memorial.

Composite orders

Architects Journal, February 10 ’82, p41-42 1982

Review of each of the collaborations commissioned in connection with the Art and Arch’re conference at the ICA ’82.

Architects and the arts

1979

Great hostility on the part of architects to the world of art; examination of these prejudices and shows how artists are working with architectural and social considerations; ref.to Gulbenkian proposals to fund artists in architectural practices; ref to resolution by the European Ministers for Cultural Affairs in Oslo in ?76, to associate artists with architectural projects from the inception; excellent conclusion on the unhistorical alienation of artist and architect.

The town artist experiment

1979

Excellent description of the roles of Town Artists in different towns in the UK with details and photographs; Glenrothes ?first official Town Artist David Harding, 1968; Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, Livingston, Milton Keynes, Peterlee (Pasmore and Brisley) Rochdale, Stevenage.

A sculpture for all seasons

Architectural Review, ’81 1981

Simplified version of ?Sculpture up Front? with colour illustrations

Phillips, Patricia

Public art; The point between

Sculptur, May/June ’92 1992

During the last ten years p.a. has not operated as a genre with clear features and conditions, it remains too unwieldy and unshapen to be a firm category; there is much artistic practice which lies between the clumsy dialectic of art and public art; in this area lies a belief in the notion of the avant-garde; description of artists in this point between.

Public art – Waste not

Art in America, February ’89, p48-50 1989

Description of the works of Mierle Laderman Ukeles from 1979; one of the few contemporary artists who believes that Public Art is really something different; that it affords extraordinary possibilities; examining cultural issues requires clear responsibilities.

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Ramljak, Susanne

Interview with Mary-Jane Jacobs

Sculptur, May/June ’92 1992

Conceptualism has given rise to a whole new territory for p.a.; public expectations in Europe are less concerned with public participation in p.a. than in th USA; studio artists believe that the public have to educate themselves in art while the post-studio or non- studio artists believe that they have to educate themselves about the public’s needs.

Restany, Pierre – Zevi, Bruno

Notes on the philosphy of ‘Site’

Robinette, Margaret

Collaboration

Circa, May/June ’89 1989

Public Art is now associated with controversy; definitions of collaboration; other design professionals regard the artist as the enemy; examples of collaborations.

Roth, Moira

Art in a community context

High Performance, Issue 33 ’86, p42-46 1986

Interview with David Harding on his work at Glenrothes as a Town Artist; development of the concept to other towns and the setting up of courses ‘Art and Social Contexts’ at Dartington and ‘Environmental Art’ at Glasgow.

Rykwert, Joseph

Doing your own thing- Can art be art in the eighties

Art Monthly; supplement on the Art and Architecture conference at the ICA in ’82

More on the mod. arch’ts opposition to cont’y art; rhetoric presupposes that there is a way of speaking about public things which is both honourable and can be beautiful. This is something we no longer believe; Ruskin said that “only with the new barbarianism will the art of the future be forged”; graffito is the only barbarian art that society admits, its elements are not figures but letters.

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Sandstrom, Sven

The hierarchy of exigiencies and the role of art in the urban environment

Compares art in the environment to vitamins in food; survey in Lund revealed that poorer people were less interested in art than the better off; yet the homes of poorer people were heavily decorated with ornaments and copies of artworks as a response to dreary and monotonous housing estates; references to sensory deprivation experiments and research; expressive quality is the social quality; call for singular expressiveness in the built environment.

Art and the environment

1978

Public commissions in art do require other expectations such as, the public as participants not as consumers; a brief need not be a limitation; two examples of collaborations in Uppsala.

Schwartz, Joyce Pomeroy

Artists and architects- Challenges in collaboration

Exhibition catalogue; Cleveland Centre for Contemporary Art, 1985

Two good quotes from IM Pei and Vito Acconci on problems of collaboration in the introduction documentation of projects which meet his criteria for public Art, Morris, Nordman, Christo, Tinguely; refs to the Rockefeller Centre, MIT building with IM Pei, Fleischner, Burton and Noland; Battery Park.

The Scottish Correspondent

Art in the urban landscape

Municipal and Public Services Journal, 8 February ’74 , p141-143 1974

Argument for the employment of artists in towns on the model of Glenrothes and the pioneering work of David Harding at Glenrothes New Town; notes other town and councils in the UK where this is taking place; discussion with the dep. chief arch. of Livingston on why it feels the need to appoint an artist.

Selwood, Sara

Art and architecture in public

Examination of the huge claims made for p.a.; it flourished during a decade when the government decreased spending on art; the Cabinet endorsed spending on p.a. in inner cities as part of urban regeneration ’88; MSC programmes often provided more arts funding than the RAA’s and local gov’t; in ’88 ACGB ceased funding permanent p.a. but continued to fund temporary work; its work is now advocacy and it launched the % for art book; concludes with an endorsement of Common Ground’s policies.

Public art private amenities

Art Monthly, ’90, p3-6 1990

Public Art assumed to be a good thing; lots of inner city projects led by local government forced the ACGB to get into the act and catch up; 55 local planning authorities committed themselves to % for art (England?) criticisms of Garden Festivals and TSWA 3D and compares these with an oppositional strain of p.a. not informed by gov’t initiatives, not led by artists or art agencies – Common Ground, Platform, etc.; little emphasis on the primacy of the art work.

Smith, Peter F.

Human rights in architecture

The Planner, December ’74, p953-955 1974

Argument for humanity’s marked preference for saturation complexity; historical examples described; the nowhereness of post war modernity.

Solnit, Rebecca

Active Art – Political art reclaims public space

New Art Examiner, January ’92, p24-27 1992

Art mediated demonstrations and guerilla art in Seattle and San Francisco out of the activities of Act Up and the Guerilla Girls; some say the 1% for art is 99% for business; working through government agencies endorse the governments control over art in public space; guerilla art expands politics to art rather the reducing art to politics.

Storr, Richard

Tilted arc: Enemy of the people?

Art in America, September ’85, p90-97 1985

Description of the procedure leading to the commission and execution of ‘Tilted Arc’; the Serra piece in Bochum in ’77 triggered a controversy that spilled over into the Regional elections; other Serras in Berlin, Barcelona and Paris; Tilted Arc’ installed in ’81 intended to subvert the tyranny of architects and the blandness of p.a.; ‘Rotary Arc’ privately funded ‘T.A.’ publicly funded; definitive article on the issues raised.

Suter, Paul

The artist in the development process

Urban Land, September 2 ’91, 1991

Author a P.R. for real estate writing in a developers magasine; artist as member of the design team at 1111, Broadway, Oakland, Ca, by Bramlea Pacific; rather than an art zoo the developer wanted to make the whole project a work of art; the technical needs of the artist essential plus attitudes of respect all round; the work could not have been added later for structural reasons; the artist Richard Deutch developed a finish for the whole building which saved the developer large sums of money; the savings went on other art projects; was it worth it? Yes – greater marketability, higher rents, long term value, publicity, better tenants, better employees, community acceptance.

Sverdlow, Joel

Vietnam memorial- To heal a nation

National Geographic, May ’85, p555-573 1985

Definitive description of how the whole project came about; incubation of the idea by Jan Scruggs, wounded and decorated Vietnam Vet. after seeing ‘The Deer Hunter’; no government money ‘it will come from the American people’; 1421 entries; Maya Linn’s selected unanimously.

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Tomkins, Calvin

Like water in glass

The New Yorker, March 21 ’83, p178-181 1983

Very good observations on the cont’y scene in p.a. in the USA; artists moving towards arch’re and arch’ts moving towards art; descriptions of Irwin, Armajani, et al, works; on the differing disciplines of art and arch’re; detailed look at the MIT Inst. of Tech’y building with Noland, Fleischner and Burton; IM Pei on artist/arch’t collab’n.

Perception at all levels

The New Yorker, December ’84, p178-181 1984

More general and historical follow-up to the earlier article; discerns a rejection of monumentality; changed relationship between art and society; space itself becomes art and the suppression of ego; collaborations with good comments by arch’t Cesar Pelli.

Tucker, William

Brancusi at Turgu Jiu

1972

Excellent analysis and description of Brancusi’s great public art work, a monument to the Romanian dead of the First World War; compares Rodin’s life’s aim of making edifying public sculpture and completing very little with Brancusi whose life’s work was in developing a very private aesthetic, morally neutral, put at risk this achievement in the realisation of a public monument on a gigantic scale, not attempted by advanced artists of serious pretensions in his time; the Table of Silence, the Gate of the Kiss and the Endless Column a modern masterpiece!

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Usherwood, Paul

Deacon and Wodizcko on Tyneside

Art Monthly, p8-9

Public art in Gateshead ‘which audience does such work address and whose interest does it serve?’; detailed examination of two works.

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Yngvason, Hafthor

Art into life: Contradictions of user-friendly public art

Sculptur, May/June ’92, p30-35 1992

The social relevance of p.a. is diminishing in direct proportion to the growing acceptance of site-specific aesthetics; attack on functional, i.e. safe, p.a.; celebration of the ordinary that indicated a certain concern for public life….. is now actively restated as a celebration of the trivial and a passive confirmation of the status quo.

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