Page 27 - Studio International - July August 1972
P. 27
New York Minneapolis
Projects for siting sculpture in cities were In 1970 the Minneapolis State Arts Council
similarly being undertaken abroad. One of the organized the '9 Artists/9 Spaces' exhibition of
earliest, and most successful, of these was the outdoor projects under which works of the scale
Sculpture in Environment project in New York in of the New York project were commissioned—
1967 under the auspices of the New York Parks, the works themselves reflecting the new interests
Recreational and Cultural Affairs of artists that had developed since the New
Administration and financed by a number of York exhibition.
private sponsors. This resulted in a number of `Rather than restrict the artists to making
memorable works including Barnett Newman's large "mockups" of works that might later be
Broken Obelisk sited on the Seagram Plaza. fabricated in permanent form, it was decided to
`An artist can carry his studio ideas out into the explore a wider range of materials and
city, selecting sites in which he can best realize processes, and many of the works are of
them. The autonomy of his art is not sacrificed temporary nature.
thereby, although his conceptions will probably `There is considerable precedence for such
alter in the process. If enough artists are enabled monumental projects. In America and abroad,
to work in public places, a new aesthetic many artists are evolving a new idiom of public
tradition may develop, a tradition of a modern art whose orientation is outside the gallery-
public art, different from that of studio art (the museum-collections context. They are primarily
chain of styles that stretches from concerned with environment rather than
Impressionism and Rodin on). portable objects.
`There are a number of attitudes that artists `Precedent for such a view in sculpture
who work in the city will have to give up. The includes "theatre in the streets", "happenings",
belief that art is precious is one, for much of modern dance (or non-dance) and mixed media
public art will be expendable. There will be the presentations. More characteristic ancestry is in
problem of vandalism. Many of the sites will the large-scale works, many in recent sculpture
undoubtedly be destroyed in the future, for exhibitions.
cities are rapidly changing. Furthermore, the `Common to the work of these artists is
public artist will suffer some loss of the privacy concern for scale. One of the most interesting
of his studio. But this and the limitations developments in 20th-century sculpture has
imposed by the site on his freedom are all that been the shift from intimate object to large-scale
he need sacrifice. presence and the re-establishment of sculpture
`At present, a move by artists into the city is as an architectural quantity.
the only feasible way on a significant scale to `The interest of much recent sculpture is
integrate art and the urban environment. The attributable to artists working on a scale
process must be trial and error for the commensurate with their conceptions :
alternative to a slow, improvisational evolution formalist artists making large durable objects
in an art based on preconceived plans.' (From work with welding equipment, gantries and
the 'Sculpture in Environment' catalogue forklifts to eliminate the problems of
introduction by Irving Sandler.) conceiving works in one scale and executing
(Left) Barnett Newman (Above centre) Bernard Rosenthal
The Broken Obelisk 1963-67 Alamo 1967
Seagram Building Plaza N.Y. Astor Place N.Y.
(Top) Forrest Myers (Above) David von Schlegell
Searchin' 1966 Untitled 5967
Projected from Tompkins Square Park N.Y. Union Carbide Building N.Y.
13
