short essay about public art

Summary of Public Art

Whether a legally commissioned statue of a noted community leader in a town square or a slap dash stencil spray-painted guerrilla-style in the dark of midnight on a storefront, art frequently engages with audiences outside of galleries and museums. This art, meant for access by the world-at-large in public spaces, serves as a democratic way for an artist to express to the masses. Public Art thus becomes artwork for the populous, instigating through visuals, actions, ideas, and interventions, a participatory audience where none prior existed. While the public display of art objects is not a solely modern phenomenon, recent innovations in Public Art forms indicate critical redefinitions of concepts like community, collective identity, and social engagement.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

• Public Art's role serves multiple purposes, often simultaneously: to aesthetically beautify space, to educate, to commemorate important people and events, to act as a tool of political or social propaganda, to activate, to document daily life, and to represent a community's ethos.
• Public Art appears in multiple forms that can mimic or depart from more traditional presentations of art including sculptures/statues, site-specific installations, murals, architecture, graffiti, actions, interventions, land and environmental art, performance, and more. Yet its main common denominator is its potential to be experienced within a discerned democratic and free sphere, bypassing the narrow and niche audiences of institutions and galleries.
• Although Public Art's roots originated in officially sanctioned works to compel historical pride and connect communities through accessible culture, the 1970s saw an expansion of its usage as the ideas of public space as democratic canvas arose within the civil rights movements. Public Art's definition bloomed to encompass illegal Street Art , artist-initiated public interventions, urban renewal-based commissions, and personal expressions of contemporary artists beyond commercial or partisan limitations.
• As Public Art has evolved to not just represent but to also engage with the public sphere many contemporary pieces are being designed with the relationship between the work and its audience in mind. This relationship becomes part of the artwork's intended message, impacting both artist and viewer, laying ground for myriad possibilities in experience and interpretation. These practices inform a wide umbrella of modern artistic categories including New Genre Public Art, Relational Aesthetics , Dialogical Art, and Participatory Art.
• Critique and conflict continue to pepper the Public Art arena as the politics surrounding representation have become forefront within society. The rise of "cancel culture" has brought into question the validity and longevity of historical artworks that no longer resonate with contemporary thought just as artists tout the public space as one in which uncensored singular voices should perpetually have the right to flourish.

Artworks and Artists of Public Art

El Pueblo y sus Falsos Líderes (The People and their False Leaders)

Artist: José Clemente Orozco

The People and their False Leaders poses a mass of emaciated, bald, blind, and unclothed men (at the right) in opposition with a group of "leaders" (to the left), who appear plump and well fed, and are dressed in workers' overalls. While the gaunt figures are indistinguishable from one another, each of the leaders bears individualizing features. The mass of skeletal figures, with arms raised and fists clenched, attack the leaders, who recoil from the aggression. Several of the leaders hold tools and weapons (like saws and knives, symbolizing the use of force) as well as opened books, pointing to the pages (symbolizing the way that those in power use theory, recorded "history" and codified "knowledge" to strengthen and maintain their authority). Blood-red flames (which, for Orozco, symbolize energy and transformative force) lick up and outward from the attacking mass, threatening to consume the flammable books. The work exists in the Enrique Díaz de León Auditorium of the former rectory of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, where muralist José Clemente Orozco produced two murals during the late 1930s that deal with injustices suffered by the most vulnerable members of society, the hypocrisy of those in power, and the prevalence of violence in the country. Both murals demonstrate Orozco's Expressionist style and use of warm, bold colors. Although Orozco was well versed in theories of proportion and composition, he also believed that a true genius knows when to break those rules. Contemporary painter Roberto Rébora says, that "In Orozco a descriptive force cohabits in intimate relationship with geometry and technical drawing." Like most Mexican Muralism, this work offers a message in alignment with Socialist ideals, highlighting the injustice of abuse of power by the ruling class wielded against the common man, and the resultant suffering of the latter. Having lived through, and fought in, the Mexican Revolution, Orozco tended to express strong emotions, violence, and torment in his works. His decision to place this particular mural in a university auditorium was likely well-considered. Although much Mexican Muralism aimed to communicate to a largely illiterate audience, Orozco may have wished, for this commission, to communicate to the students, professors, and other intellectuals who would have attended lectures and other events in this space, that knowledge is power, and with great power comes great responsibility. In other words, the mural may have been intended as a reminder to this more literate and academically-minded audience that, as leaders in their local and national communities, they have a responsibility to ensure that their research and theories do not contribute to social injustice and the abuse of power. To this day, the auditorium continues to host academic lectures and events, and Orozco's murals speak to new generations.

Fresco - Rectory of the University of Guadalajara (Now the Art Museum of the University of Guadalajara (MUSA))

Old Pioneers

Artist: Peter Hurd

This mural, painted for the city of Big Spring's Post Office, depicts a scene of family frontier life, with a father, mother, and their children standing heroically in front of their modest home. Big Spring's Signal Mountain is visible in the background, making the mural relevant to its local audience. The family is surrounded by farming equipment and plump poultry, indicating that they are industrious people whose work ethic allows them to prosper from the land. At the bottom of the mural, Hurd included a line from a Walt Whitman poem, which reads: "O Pioneers, democracy rests finally upon us, and our visions sweep through eternity." This line reinforces the main message of the work, that the nation was built on the backs of hard-working rural Americans, who therefore deserve to be honored as heroes. The work, painted by artist Peter Hurd, is one of the many artworks that were sponsored by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Taking a cue from the Mexican Muralists, these pieces aimed to motivate and empower the American public in order to work towards progress and prosperity following the Great Depression. They presented the hard-working citizen focused on the importance of agricultural labor, and the core "American" values such as close-knit family units.

Tempera fresco - Former post office building in Big Spring, Texas (now the 118th District Courthouse)

Time Landscape

Artist: Alan Sonfist

In 1965, Alan Sonfist began planning this work, which wouldn't be installed (or rather, planted) for another thirteen years. The project involved planting a variety of plant species that had been indigenous to the New York City area in pre-colonial times, on a 25 by 40 foot rectangular plot of land belonging to the Department of Transportation, at the corner of La Guardia Place and West Houston Street in Manhattan. Sonfist explained, "As in war monuments that record the life and death of soldiers, the life and death of natural phenomena such as rivers, springs, and natural outcroppings need to be remembered." As in many of his Land Art projects, Sonfist began Time Landscape by undertaking extensive research on New York's regional botany, geology, and history, and he designed the artwork to grow and evolve naturally, making Mother Nature a co-collaborator in his work. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation explains, "When it was first planted, Time Landscape portrayed the three stages of forest growth from grasses to saplings to grown trees. The southern part of the plot represented the youngest stage and now has birch trees and beaked hazelnut shrubs, with a layer of wildflowers beneath. The center features a small grove of beech trees (grown from saplings transplanted from Sonfist's favorite childhood park in the Bronx) and woodland with red cedar, black cherry, and witch hazel above groundcover of mugwort, Virginia creeper, aster, pokeweed, and milkweed. The northern area is mature woodland dominated by oaks, with scattered white ash and American elm trees. Among the numerous other species in this miniforest are oak, sassafras, sweetgum, and tulip trees, arrowwood and dogwood shrubs, bindweed and catbrier vines, and violets." Curator Todd Alden says of the work, "Neither a park nor a wilderness preserve, Sonfist's unusual hybrid combining both backward and forward-looking registrations radically re-conceived not only the idea of what a public monument might be (as a means of historical commemoration), but it also proposed nothing less than a re-formulated possibility frontier for art itself, including also man's historical (and future) relationship to nature." Moving into the second half of the twentieth century, many artists began to focus on the contemporary dilemmas associated with environmental destruction, a problem that was increasingly being seen as having potential to affect the global population. In response to growing ecological concerns, land artists opted to create site-specific works that would not only highlight the threat of these issues, but that also employed carefully selected sites and natural (often living) materials as opposed to merely installing unnatural man-made constructions into public spaces. Many of these artists, like Michael Heizer, Walter De Maria, and Robert Smithson tended to execute Land Art projects in remote locations like deserts and dried-up lakes. On the other hand, Sonfist chose to bring Land Art to densely populated urban environments, highlighting the importance of preserving nature within city centers. He explains, "My feeling is that if we are going to live within a city, we have to create an understanding of the land. And that includes suburban dwellers as well. We have to come to a better understanding of who we are and how we exist on the planet."

Earth, indigenous trees, bushes and flowers - Greenwich Village, New York City

The Pont Neuf Wrapped

Artist: Christo and Jean-Claude

For the Point Neuf project, married couple Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (born in Bulgaria) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (born in Morocco to French parents) enveloped Paris' oldest bridge in 430,000 square feet of sand-colored polyamide fabric. After a full decade of planning, the work of wrapping the bridge began on August 25, 1985 and was finished on September 22. Over three million viewers saw the work before it was removed on October 5. This work serves as an example of New Genre Public Art, and more specifically, of Site-Specific Art, in that the project was designed for one specific location, with the aim of working with and "metamorphosing" the existing structure and surrounding urban landscape. The artists' aim was not to conceal the bridge, but to transform it into a new sculptural form, revealing and highlighting the bridge's geometry, proportions, and angles. The color chosen for the fabric was intended to blend in with the color of the sandstone streets in Paris at sunset. Moreover, the in-person experience formed a crucial element of the work. As Christo explained, "Our work has to be experienced, lived, touched [...] People have to feel the air, see the work breathing, living, moving in the wind, changing colours every time of the day. Images, whether they are books, postcards, posters or films do not substitute. They are a souvenir, a record but they do not substitute the real experience." Writing about New Genre Public Art, art historian, critic, and curator Arlene Raven notes that "Often these works are temporary, leaving traces in the hearts and minds of all those affected by the process rather than merely leaving monuments in their midst." Similarly, curator and art historian Miwon Kwon identifies impermanence as an important element of much site-specific art, as evidenced by Christo and Jean-Claude's aversion to creating permanent artworks. As Christo explained, when it came to their work, "If you didn't see it, you missed it." The artist couple were famous for creating large-scale, outdoor, site-specific interventions, such as this one, from the 1960s until Jeanne-Claude's passing in 2009, frequently altering or "wrapping" pre-existing historical buildings and monuments. Christo passed away in 2020. The duo always refused sponsorship, funding their projects themselves (usually through the sales of preliminary drawings). Their projects often required the involvement of large teams of people (such as the nearly 300 workers involved in The Point Neuf Wrapped ), years of planning, and extensive public outreach and collaboration with local communities and governments. In this way, Christo and Jean Claude's work demonstrated more of a participatory ethos that intimately involved the local community, offering possibilities for urban citizens to refuse succumbing to the "blasé attitude" and the "crowd of strangers" that sociologists George Simmel and Ernest W. Burgess associated with metropolitan life, and instead forge new forms of community and discover "new possibilities of unity," as desired by Welsh Marxist theorist Raymond Williams.

Polyamide fabric, secured by rope and steel chains - Pont Neuf, Paris

Artist: Richard Serra

One of the more controversial examples of site-specific art is Tilted Arc by American minimalist sculptor Richard Serra, comprised of a single, solid, slightly curved, slightly tilted, 120-foot-long, 12-foot-high plate of Cor-ten steel. The work was originally conceived for, and installed in, the Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan, New York City, and was commissioned by the United States General Services Administration Art-in-Architecture program. The sculpture boldly bisected the plaza, and Serra's intent was for "The viewer [to become] aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. [...] Step by step, the perception not only of the sculpture but of the entire environment changes." However, local office workers viewed the work as an eyesore and an obstruction, as a "graffiti catcher" and an "iron curtain." An employee of the nearby U.S. Department of Education remarked that, "It has dampened our spirits every day. It has turned into a hulk of rusty steel and clearly, at least to us, it doesn't have any appeal [...] and for those of us at the plaza I would like to say, please do us a favor and take it away." Eventually, the displeased locals officially petitioned to have the sculpture removed. Serra responded by suing the government for thirty million dollars, saying that it had "deliberately induced" public hostility toward his work, and that removal of the work constituted a breach of contract and a violation of his constitutional rights (as it would negatively impact his sales and commissions as well as his artistic reputation). Serra argued that "To move the work is to destroy the work," and, as professor of Performance Studies Nick Kaye notes, this simple phrase serves as a "key definition" of site-specific art. In the end, the Federal District Court ruled against Serra in July of 1987, and the sculpture was cut into three parts and removed from the site in March 1989. However, as intellectual property lawyer Judith A. Bresler notes, the controversy surrounding Tilted Arc likely contributed to the 1990 enactment of the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), which provides "moral rights" to the artist so that they have rights to attribution and integrity when it comes to paintings, drawings, and sculpture, although a 2006 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals established that VARA does not protect location as a component of site-specific artwork. Artist, art historian, and art critic Suzi Gablik writes that "What the Tilted Arc controversy forces us to consider is whether art that is centered on notions of pure freedom and radical autonomy, and subsequently inserted into the public sphere without regard for the relationship it has to other people, to the community, or any consideration except the pursuit of art, can contribute to the common good. Merely to pose the question, however, indicates that what has most distinguished aesthetic philosophy in the modern paradigm is a desire for art that is absolutely free of the pretensions of doing the world any good." As cultural theorist Malcolm Miles explains, the controversy surrounding this work "demonstrated the bankruptcy of late modernist art in terms of social relatedness."

Cor-ten Steel

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Artist: Maya Lin

While many Modern and Contemporary artists continue to create traditional, figurative monuments and memorials, others employ newer styles, challenging preconceived notions of the "appropriate" visual language of memorialization. For example, Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial (VVM) honors service members of the U.S. armed forces who died or went missing in action in the Vietnam War. The design for the memorial draws from Lin's experience working with Land Art. The main portion of the memorial is the Memorial Wall (or Wall of Names), comprised of two 246 foot-long polished black granite walls, which meet at a 125˚ angle, and taper vertically downward toward the two ends. The walls are engraved with nearly 60,000 names of the servicemen being honored. The walls are sunken into the earth, representing a healing wound. Despite being the most visited of all memorials in Washington D. C., the VVM has sparked a great deal of controversy, with critics attacking the unconventionally abstracted design (which contrasts with most of the other classically-inspired figurative monuments and memorials on the National Mall), as well as what is seen as the "negative" (or at best, ambiguous) political stance on the Vietnam war suggested by the form of the VVM and the use of the color black. These criticisms have been catalyzed by the fact that Lin, a first-generation Asian-American woman, was selected to create this particular memorial. Professor of philosophy Charles L. Griswold undertakes a more thoughtful reading of the VVM. He writes that "The list of names both ends and begins at the center of the monument, suggesting that the monument is both open and closed: open physically, at a very wide angle, like a weak 'V' for 'victory'[...]; but closed in substance - the war is over. This simultaneous openness and closure becomes all the more interesting when we realize that the VVM iconically represents a book. The pages are covered with writing, and the book is open partway through. The closure just mentioned is the closure not of the book but of a chapter in it. The openness indicates that further chapters have yet to be written, and read." Griswold asserts that the VVM "is not a comforting memorial; it is perhaps because of this, rather than in spite of it, that it possesses remarkable therapeutic capacity." He attributes this to the particular form of ritual that many visitors to the VVM enact, explaining, "when people find on the VVM the name they've been looking for, they touch, even caress it, remembering. One sees this ritual repeated over and over. It is often followed by another, the tracing of the name on a piece of paper. The paper is then carefully folded up and taken home, and the marks of the dead left in stone thus become treasured signatures for the living." Artist Suzanne Lacy asserts that this sort of "experiential engagement" accounts "in large part for the work's success." The memorial further implicates the viewer and the surrounding area, as the highly polished black granite acts as a mirror, reflecting the living visitors to the site, as well as the Lincoln and Washington monuments further in the distance. Griswold notes that the VVM "is a memorial to the Vietnam veterans , not the Vietnam War," and asserts that it is patriotic without being heroic, and in this way it is "apolitical" and "fundamentally interrogative; it does not take a position as to the answer." However, it is precisely the VVM's ambiguity in content, and abstraction in form, that troubles many. In response to these criticisms, two figurative sculptural additions were later installed close to the Memorial Wall. The first of these was Frederick Hart's bronze statue The Three Servicemen that depicts three servicemen who are identifiable as European-American, African-American, and Latino-American, thereby acknowledging the ethnic diversity of those who fought. Hart's statue was meant to please those who prefer a more traditional and heroic approach to memorialization, but Lin was upset, calling the decision to install Hart's statue "a coup" which "had nothing to do with how many veterans liked or disliked my piece," and she asserted that she had not received a single critical letter from a veteran.

Black granite - National Mall, Washington DC

Domestic Violence Milk Carton

Artist: Peggy Diggs

American artist Peggy Diggs became concerned with the issue of domestic abuse in the United States, and after educating herself by reading extensively about the psychology and sociology of domestic violence, and by conducting interviews with rape counselors, police officers, and women's shelter workers, she decided to raise awareness of, and potentially aid victims of, domestic violence. Diggs then met with a Rhode Island woman serving a prison sentence for murdering her abuser, and the woman suggested that creating an artistic intervention at grocery stores may allow for more victims to see it, as, according to the woman, the supermarket had been the only place that her abusive husband allowed her to go to on her own. Diggs then created four different designs for milk cartons, and with the support of domestic violence coalitions in six states, as well as Creative Time (a nonprofit arts organization in New York City), she convinced the Tuscan Dairy Company to produce and distribute one-and-a-half million cartons with her designs throughout New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania in January and February of 1992. Each carton design featured the black silhouette of a grasping hand, the words: "When you argue at home, does it always get out of hand?" and the phone number for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Diggs states, "I love public art. [... It] is not limited. It's not isolated. It's not elitist. It doesn't exist in a corner of the culture somewhere." Her Domestic Milk Carton project demonstrated a strong participatory approach, in that it involved extensive consultation and collaboration with a variety of community members before and during its execution. In projects such as these, the concept of experience gains importance. American philosopher John Dewey understood experience as the result of the interaction (comprising participation and communication) of an organism and its environment. Likewise, German art historian Juliane Rebentisch defines experience as "a process between subject and object that transforms both," and recognizes that "differently situated subjects might [...] experience the same work differently." The project also exemplifies the social turn (or, as artist Suzanne Lacy puts it, the focus on social responsibility, to which aesthetic concerns become secondary) that characterizes much New Genre Public Art. In order to affect social change, Diggs centered her project upon a pressing social issue, and disseminated her artwork as part of everyday life, leading to an impact that would never have been possible were her artwork confined to a gallery or museum space. In the later part of the twentieth century, many artists began to challenge the commodity status of art by creating works that were dematerialized, participatory, dialogical, and multisensory.

1.5 million milk cartons

Artist: Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir

Despite the increasing prevalence of immaterial and participatory public artworks in recent decades, many artists continue to create sculptural works in order to beautify public space, and to serve an educational or instructive function. Icelandic sculptor Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, who has trained in England and Italy, was commissioned by the British and Icelandic governments to design two twin sculptures titled Voyages that would reside in both the port city of Hill, England, and the fishing village of Vik, Iceland. The pair of androgynous figures stand as instructive monuments to the historical relationship between the two locations, both peering out across the sea as if viewing one another. Thorarinsdottir explains that her aim in this project was to "symbolize the bond created by more than a thousand years of sea trading between Hull and Iceland" and to memorialize those who had lost their lives at sea. Thorarinsdottir notes that "Of all the art projects I have been involved with, [ Voyages ] has been by far the most special and meaningful." She explains, that throughout her artistic career, "What has inspired me the most is the environment, and people. Society. The larger picture." It is her hope that her sculptures can "connect individuals to each other and to the wider environment." The unveiling of the Voyages sculptures was a community event, for which poets Angela Leighton, Carol Rumens, Cliff Forshaw, and David Wheatley composed poems. Thorarinsdottir's sculptures can be found in cities across the world. They all share the same androgynous, anonymous appearance, with the rough finish of their surface calling to mind the Icelandic wilderness, which may seem austere and cold to some. However, she asserts "Using human figures makes it possible for people to relate to this work very directly, but at the same time the characteristics of the figure are reserved and anonymous - they don't force themselves on the viewer." Moreover, the idea of family forms the basis of her artistic practice as Thorarinsdottir creates the molds for her sculptures using her sons' bodies. Philosophy professor Peter Osborne asserts that Thorarinsdottir's works are "magical alchemical creations that she infuses with life, humanizes and sets forth to take their place in the landscape."

Bronze - Hull, England

Artist: Anish Kapoor

After winning a design competition, Indian-born British sculptor Anish Kapoor created Cloud Gate (also referred to as The Bean due to its shape) to stand as the centerpiece of AT&T Plaza at Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. It sits at 33 feet high, 42 feet wide, and 66 feet long, and weighs about 110 tons. The work's seamless and highly-polished stainless steel exterior gives it a weightless quality, while also conjuring a fun-house mirror quality, reflecting and distorting the image of the visitors to the park, as well as the surrounding urban environment. In this way, the work integrates itself into the city, rather than acting as a visual imposition or physical obstruction. The work lends itself to interactivity, as its reflective nature makes it a popular photo-opportunity destination, and as its arched shape invites visitors to pass underneath it. The form of liquid mercury, as well as spirituality and Eastern theologies like Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism all informed Kapoor in making this piece. He envisioned the sculpture as a sort of gate between man and sky, reflecting the images of both in unison. Project manager Lou Cerny of MTH Industries explains that, "When the light is right, you can't see where the sculpture ends and the sky begins." Art critic Edward Lifson considers Cloud Gate to be among the greatest pieces of Public Art in the world, as it has become a popular tourist attraction and a symbol of Chicago. Its unveiling was honored by local jazz trumpeter Orbert Davis, who wrote "Fanfare for Cloud Gate" for the occasion. Not merely beautiful, this piece of Public Art inspires viewers to take a moment to remember the presence of nature all around and their unique relationship to it, even amidst the urban environment.

Stainless steel - Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois

Pussylluminati

Artist: MissMe

Montreal-based street artist MissMe creates her unsanctioned works (usually wheat paste posters and stickers) in public spaces in cities on all continents, with the aim of promoting female empowerment, challenging toxic masculinity, and supporting feminist and anti-racist activism. Many of her works use aggressive and/or graphic imagery, for instance of female genitalia, and of rage-filled women shouting obscenities, to elicit a shock response in her viewers. In other works, she creates portraits of strong women from history (often women of color), such as Helen Keller, Frida Kahlo, Maya Angelou, Billie Holiday, and Malala Yousafzai, in order to keep these minority leaders and their achievements alive in the public imagination. Pop culture writer Johannes Stahl notes the way in which graffiti artists employ methods that mirror those of political campaigns. He points out that although graffiti is generally thought to be a spontaneous activity, any successful action involves thorough planning of both the process, and the desired effect on the viewer. MissMe's work exemplifies this (drawing on her past career in advertising), for instance, in the way that she repeatedly paints or posts her "Pussylluminati" symbol (two hands touching at the thumbs and forefingers, with the representation of a vagina in the central space) in various locations, and promotes this symbol online as representing a sort of "gang" of empowered feminists. MissMe pushes her objectives further, by using social media platforms (primarily Instagram) to explain her political stance and the intent behind her works more in-depth, as well as to generate public discussion of the pressing socio-political issues she deals with in her art. She also manages to maintain her anonymity, wearing a mask when she appears in photographs and videos. She writes that, "The mask hides my face. But what it truly does is reveal myself. I argue that this mask frees me from my more heavy and bounding social and cultural identities." In the case of MissMe, "the medium is the message" (to borrow a quote from Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan). The illegal and public form of MissMe's art is just as, if not more, crucial than the content of the works. She explain that "one of the recurring criticisms I would get, since I've been a teenager, is that I 'take too much space,' that I'm too assertive [...] I've spent a lot of time trying to "fix" it. And so I made myself smaller, less present, less visible [...] Until I made myself so small that I nearly disappeared. [...] Now, I'm healing from all this bullshit. I see mean fake criticism for what it is: others' insecurities. [...] I take space. My space. And if you can't handle it, get the fuck out of it."

Sticker - Montreal

Beginnings of Public Art

Historical precedents.

Public Art has existed for thousands of years, across numerous cultures and societies, and has served a range of functions.

In ancient Greek and Roman culture , for example, sculpture played an important role in communication between the state and the people. Mass-produced statues of the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar were placed in various public locations to function as propaganda, communicating particular attributes of the leader. This persistent sculptural presence brought to mind his position as a strong orator and diplomat with a pious divine nature, reaffirming his power in the minds of the citizens. These types of idealized monuments to great leaders have continued throughout later societies, as seen in sculptures of Napoleon Bonaparte and Joseph Stalin.

Wall paintings and frescoes have also been used since ancient times, appearing in cultures as far back as the Paleolithic era, as evidenced by the cave paintings at sites like Lascaux, France, and Altamira, Spain. Images and/or text were painted on walls in Egyptian tombs, Minoan palaces, Mayan structures, and the streets of Pompeii. The purpose of these murals included beautification, the communication of societal beliefs, and the documentation of everyday life. In the Middle Ages, religious frescos were commonly painted in churches in order to beautify the space while portraying narratives from the bible to educate illiterate and astonish churchgoers.

In some respects architecture has also long functioned as a form of Public Art, with buildings designed to communicate particular atmospheres or messages. This can be seen in religious architecture, which is always based upon symbolism. In many cultures, the circular form that composes certain rooms, or architectural features such as the dome, takes on a mystical significance, through its suggestion of the planets, sun, and moon, or eternity. The Pantheon in Rome elicits this idea. Christian and Catholic churches and cathedrals were generally based upon a cruciform plan, referencing the symbolic shape of the cross. Meanwhile, the square forms a foundation for design in many Hindu temples, as it is believed to express celestial harmony.

The Emergence of Modern Cities and the Public Sphere

In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, and the resultant relocation of high numbers of people from rural areas to urban centers, the modern city took on new importance in the cultural and social spheres, and became a discerned space of existence with particular effects on the human psyche. Consequently, all Public Art located in modern cities comes into conversation with urban life and mentality.

American historian, sociologist, and philosopher Lewis Mumford wrote in 1937 that the city is "above all things, a theater [...] of social action," as well as a "social institution," "a related collection of primary groups and purposive associations," and "an aesthetic symbol of collective unity [which] fosters art and is art."

The notion of a public sphere, based upon accessibility, has become central to discourse regarding Public Art. As art historian Rosalyn Deutsche writes, "even the most ingenuous accounts of public art agree: public space is inextricably linked to democratic ideals. When, for instance, arts administrators and city officials formulate criteria for placing 'art in public places,' they routinely employ a vocabulary that invokes, albeit loosely, the tenets of both direct and representative democracy: Are the artworks for 'the people?' Do they encourage 'participation?' Do they serve their 'constituencies? [...] Do the works relinquish 'elitism?' Are they 'accessible?'"

Public Art as Pride: Community and Memory

French philosopher Maurice Halbswachs asserts that rather than functioning solely on an individual, isolated level, memory is codependent and co-constitutive, writing that, "It is in society that people normally acquire their memories. It is also in society that they recall, recognize, and localize their memories ... It is in this sense that there exists a collective memory; it is to the degree that our individual thought places itself in these frameworks and participates in this memory that it is capable of the act of recollection." This theory is exemplified by the way that many cultures create sites and rituals devoted to collective remembering, such as Christian pilgrimages, the "Day of the Dead" celebrations in Mexico, and the observance of memorial holidays like Veterans Day in the United States or Remembrance Day in Canada. Monuments and memorials thus serve as permanent, public, visual markers of memory as it occurs within the community.

For example, contemporary artist Jim Pomeroy understands Mount Rushmore as an important and mythical symbol within "an imagined American collective identity" and "American cultural consciousness." He writes that "In company with the Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, Capitol Dome, Astrodome, Golden Gate Bridge, Contract Bridge, Goodyear Blimp, Hoover Dam, Martin Luther King, transistors, Chevrolets, Mickey Mouse, Washingtons crossing Delawares, Coke, Neil Armstrong, polio vaccine, Lauren Bacall, football, and pantyhose, it matrices a composite - a consensus fantasy that supplies kinship, as 'Americans,' with parameters, territories, lineage castes, roles, and history in palatable natural form."

Mexican Muralism: Public Art as Educator or Instigator

In the decades following the Mexican Revolution, from about 1920 to 1950, a group of artists turned to the ancient (pre-Hispanic) medium of fresco and mural painting in order to create art in public spaces that would use visual language to reach the illiterate majority of the populace, and that would assist in strengthening national pride as the country rebuilt itself. The muralists were guided by a fundamental belief that art belongs to the public, and should not be made elitist through privatization. Three artists in particular became central figures in post-Revolution muralism in Mexico: Diego Rivera , José Clemente Orozco , and David Alfaro Siqueiros . Although the Mexican Muralists completed several government commissions, many of them also created works autonomously, painting their personal ideals, and at times generating controversy.

Rivera had been in Europe during the Revolution, and his art combined European Modernism and Cubism to communicate utopian ideals and the social benefits of the Revolution. Orozco and Siqueiros, on the other hand, had both fought in the Revolution, and thus produced somewhat more foreboding works. Orozco's art was influenced by European Expressionism and was highly critical of oppression by the ruling class, war and the resultant suffering of man, and the potential future threat of dependence on technology. Siqueiros experimented with new techniques and materials, nearing Futurism and Neorealism in style. Of the three, he produced works that were the most radical and Communist in content, and demonstrated a strong faith in technological and industrial advances.

Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros (the "big three") formed the Labor Union of Technical Workers, Painters, and Sculptors in 1922. Their manifesto asserted that "art and politics are inseparable," and the document outlined their desire: "To socialize art [and] to destroy bourgeois individualism [as well as] to create beauty which should suggest struggle and serve to arouse it."

The muralism movement spread outside of Mexico, for instance with several American artists travelling to Mexico to view murals, and with each of the "big three" artists being commissioned to execute public murals in the United States. Artist and critic Charmion von Wiegand declared in 1934 that the Mexican muralists were "a more creative influence in American painting than the modernist French masters. [...] They have brought painting back to its vital function in society."

As culture writer Anna Purna Kambhampaty explains, "Enlivened by how Mexican artists created a national identity that was inclusive of the people's fight for freedom, American artists followed suit, with an interest in telling stories about the public fight for good," as seen in works like Charles White's public mural, Five Great American Negroes (1939-1940). Kambhampaty notes that "American artists also began to leverage art to agitate for social change," such as African-American artist Hale Woodruff, who apprenticed with Rivera. Woodruff depicted a group of white men cheering at the lynching of a black man in his linocut Giddap (1935), in order to educate audiences about the plight of oppressed peoples.

The WPA: Public Art During the Great Depression

Following the Great Depression, American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration (WPA) (and the Federal Arts Project (FAP)) as part of his New Deal in order to support struggling artists through the funding of artistic projects, by providing artists with a sense of community, and by asserting art as a worthwhile vocation, rather than a mere leisure activity. Between 1934 and 1943, the WPA hired thousands of artists to create around 200,000 paintings, murals, and sculptures in municipal buildings, schools, and hospitals across the United States. The FAP continued these activities until the start of World War II, when funds and resources needed to be diverted to the war effort.

Another important aim of the FAP was to support the production of inspiring images that communicated core American values, and depicted scenes of technological progress, agricultural abundance, quaint small town life, and vibrant city living. Realistic styles (including Social Realism and Regionalism ) were preferred. In this way, the FAP aimed to position the arts as an integral part of everyday public life. Artists who worked for the WPA included painters Willem de Kooning , Stanton Macdonald-Wright , Stuart Davis , Jackson Pollock , and Arshile Gorky .

Many WPA artists looked south to the Mexican Muralism movement for inspiration, both in terms of technique, and how to deal with social and political subject matter in a nation recovering from devastation. American artist Jackson Pollock was heavily influenced by Orozco's murals (as evidenced by the striking similarities between Pollock's The Flame (1934-38) and Orozco's murals Prometheus (1930) and The Epic of American Civilization (1932) as well as by the time he spent at New York's Experimental Workshop, founded in 1936 by Siqueiros. The workshop was based on the philosophy that truly radical art requires the abandonment of old practices and the pioneering of completely new techniques, leading Pollock to his signature technique of creating "drip paintings." Charles Alston, one of the first African American supervisors hired by the WPA, met Diego Rivera while Rivera was painting the mural Man at the Crossroads at New York City's Rockefeller Center, and Alston later noted that he was "very much influenced" by Rivera's murals. American artist Romare Bearden asserts that African American artists were particularly drawn to the work of the Mexican muralists because of the way in which the Mexicans "used historical subjects to educate their illiterate and impoverished people on social issues."

Street Art: Public Art as Rebellion and Activism

Since the mid-1900s, the term "graffiti" (whose etymological origins tie it to "scribbling" or inscribing upon a wall or surface) has come to carry strong connotations of illegality and rebellion. Contemporary graffiti emerged in the late 1960s from the black and Latino neighborhoods and street gang cultures of New York City, alongside hip hop music, break dancing, and related "street" subculture. Street culture peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, and the invention of the spray can influenced a new technique of artistic expression that soon began showing up in cities around the world. Graffiti is a subcategory of Street Art , which, in recent decades, has come to demarcate any and all unsanctioned artistic interventions in public spaces.

Curator Ethel Seno proposes that "graffiti is an outcome of psychological, intellectual, social, and political needs of a subculture, and broadly speaking, it is a symbol of the dissent by a minority faced with multiple forms of First Amendment repression." Contemporary graffiti often serves as an indicator of the conditions for inner-city communities. Brazilian street artist Deninja says, "[Graffiti is] an art that is there in the street for those that don't have a culture, don't understand art but like it for what it is... for the beggars, poor children, prostitutes, lunatics and drunks of the streets."

Although not all graffiti works feature explicit political content, Seno explains that "At its most apolitical, work done without permission in places that make others bear witness to the affront still embodies an intuitive rebellion against the assumption that the rules of property take precedence over the inherent rights of free use and self-expression."

Illegal Street Art may hold even greater potential to revive the notion of the "public sphere," in comparison to officially sanctioned "Public Art," due to a range of converging factors: accessibility, location, shock value, and anonymity.

New Genre Public Art

Since the 1960s, artists, art critics, and art historians have been operating with greater concern for art's place in the world beyond the gallery walls and have become increasingly preoccupied with the potential for art to link to the "broader social and political world," to aid in the "creative facilitation of dialogue and exchange," and to "challenge conventional perceptions [...] and systems of knowledge." Scholars refer to these Contemporary Art practices that directly take up these aims using an array of terms, including "New Genre Public Art" (Suzanne Lacy), " Relational Aesthetics " (Nicolas Bourriaud), "Dialogical Art" (Grant Kester), and "Participatory Art" (Claire Bishop). What links these practices is a focus on the relationship between artist and audience; indeed, this relationship itself (or, as Lacy puts it, "the space between artist and audience") often becomes the artwork (as opposed to a material art object). Additionally, curator Mary Jane Jacobs summarizes, New Genre Public Art "is not art for public spaces but art addressing public issues [...] It reconnects culture and society, and recognizes that art is made for audiences, not for institutions of art."

According to Lacy, New Genre Public Art describes work by artists who "have been working in a manner that resembles political and social activity but is distinguished by its aesthetic sensibility" and for whom "public strategies of engagement are an important part of [their] aesthetic language."

These practices, which encompass a range of media including installation, performance, and conceptual art, are rooted in the happenings of the 1960s and the Fluxus movement of the 1960s and 1970s (when artists challenged the conventions and authority of galleries and museums, and refused art's commodity status), and are informed by more recent discourses of Marxism, feminism, and ecology.

For her 2013 piece "Between the Door and the Street" installation, Lacy gathered 400 women and a few men-all selected to represent a cross-section of ages, backgrounds, and perspectives-onto the stoops along Park Place, a residential block in Brooklyn, where they engaged in unscripted conversations about a variety of issues related to gender politics today. Thousands of members of the public came out to wander among the groups, listen to what they were saying, and form their own opinions.

Concepts and Styles

Public monuments and memorials.

Monuments and memorials are usually sculptural (sometimes architectural) artworks that are created for the purpose of commemorating or remembering a person, group of people, or historical event. They are often located on a site of importance, such as the site of an important battle or a tragic societal experience. They can mark unifying celebration as equally as facilitate the processing of communal grief. As Federico Bellentani, professor of semiotics and geography, explains, "monuments play an important role in the definition of a uniform national memory and identity..." Whether figurative or abstract, their form and content are always carefully designed to express a particular historical narrative.

An example of a figurative memorial is Shoes on the Danube Bank (2005) in Budapest, Hungary (by film director Can Togay and sculptor Gyula Pauer), which consists of sixty pairs of iron shoes, meant to represent the Hungarian Jews slaughtered by the Nazis during World War II. Meanwhile, architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold chose an abstract approach in creating the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany, which is comprised of 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae," of randomly varying heights, arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. According to Eisenman, the work is meant to disorient and discomfort the viewer, and to represent a "supposedly rational and ordered system" that "loses touch with human reason."

Monuments and memorials also provide opportunities for a nation to assert what kind of community they view themselves as (such as pacifist versus militarist). As Professor of philosophy Charles L. Griswold notes, "The word 'monument' derives from the Latin monere , which means not just 'to remind' but also 'to admonish,' 'warn,' 'advise,' 'instruct.'" In discussing the monuments and memorials found in the National Mall of Washington D.C. (including the Capitol Building, the Lincoln Memorial, and Washington Monument), Griswold writes that these structures "belong to a particular species of recollective architecture, a species whose symbolic and normative content is prominent. After all, war memorials by their very nature recall struggles to the death over values."

Due to their inherent political content, monuments and memorials are often controversial, particularly in places that have undergone significant political regime changes, as in the case of American monuments to Confederate heroes. Many of these Confederate monuments are seen as glorifying racist historical villains and their white supremacist ideologies, and are therefore being removed (as in the case of the Robert Edward Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia.) The World War II Memorial in Washington D. C. has also been harshly criticized, due to its lack of emotionality, and its "vainglorious" and "overbearing" focus on the glorification of national victory, with its massive granite columns and golden eagles. Architecture critic Inga Saffron criticized the monument as adopting a "pompous style [that was] also favored by Hitler and Mussolini."

Public Murals

Major muralism movements of the twentieth century, particularly post-Revolution Mexican muralism, and WPA-sponsored murals in the United States, were characterized by content that focused on developing national pride, asserting core national values, and championing technological progress in the wake of devastating events (the Mexican Revolution, and the Great Depression). These murals were not only intended to beautify public spaces, but also to communicate important messages to even the illiterate members of society. This meant that muralists often exaggerated and caricaturized their figures, and used easily recognizable symbols, to express their intended messages.

Mexican murals contained much political (usually Socialist) subject matter. As muralists were frequently commissionedin government buildings, palaces, schools, and other buildings with unique architectural features, the movement came to be characterized by allowing for compositions to be determined by the geometrical and physical particulars of a given space or surface.

Today, murals are widely used by artists, both commissioned and non-commissioned, to beautify space, remark on community, incite social change, and reflect a surrounding environment or community ethos.

Public Sculpture

When not seeking to commemorate or memorialize, public sculpture serves a range of purposes. Many artists aim merely to beautify and leave their mark on public spaces (such as Jeff Koons' Balloon Flower (Red) (1995-1999, New York City)). Others hope that their works will cause viewers to reconsider their relationship to their urban environment. For example, in Bridge Over Tree in New York's Brooklyn Bridge Park, Iranian-born, Minneapolis-based artist Siah Armajani aimed to create a sculptural installation that moved around a pre-existing tree, reminding viewers of the importance of our natural resources. Other artists create public sculptures that they want viewers to interact with, for instance, by making sculptures that can be climbed and enjoyed in phenomenological fashion.

Participatory Art

In these types of works, as curator Patricia Phillips writes, "Community involvement is the raw material of artistic practice," and the relationships amongst people are the artwork. Artist and arts writer Suzanne Lacy notes that contemporary artists working in public spaces must learn entirely new strategies: "how to collaborate, how to develop multilayered and specific audiences, how to cross over with other disciplines, how to choose sites that resonate with public meaning, and how to clarify visual and process symbolism for people who are not educated in art."

Art historian Claire Bishop states that in participatory practices "the artist is conceived less as an individual producer of discrete objects than as a collaborator and producer of situations; the work of art as a finite, portable, commodifiable product is reconceived as an ongoing or long-term project with an unclear beginning and end; while the audience, previously conceived as a 'viewer' or 'beholder,' is now repositioned as a co-producer or participant."

Artists engaged in participatory/dialogical/relational practice find that public spaces are generally more conducive to the aims of their projects, particularly in terms of their social objectives. According to Bishop, the "social (re)turn" in art since the 1990s indicates "a shared set of desires to overturn the traditional relationship between the art object, the artist and the audience." Bishop notes that the importance placed upon communalism over individualism is a key aspect of participatory art projects. She writes that such projects view individualism "with suspicion, not least because the commercial art system and museum programming continue to revolve around lucrative single figures." Thus it would seem, as artist and critic Suzi Gablik asserts, that participatory art aims to react against neoliberalism, pushing for increased consideration for community, communalism, and public interest rather than individualism and privatization.

Site-Specific Work

Site-specific artworks can range from sculpture, Land/Earth Art , Environmental Art , and murals/graffiti, to participatory or performance projects. What makes a work site-specific is that its physical location (as well as social considerations such as the opinions, needs, and desires of the local community) is taken into account throughout the planning and execution stages of the work. In his discussion of site-specific art, Italian art critic Bruno Corà notes the close, dynamic " rapporto inscindibile " ("inseparable relationship") between artwork and site and proposes that site-specific art cannot be moved without losing a part of its significance.

Corà notes that site-specific artists draw inspiration from each site, taking into consideration the aesthetic qualities of the space, the sounds and odors present in the space, and the particular quality of light that falls within the space. In other words, all sensory aspects of a space play into the artist's final decision about what work will be placed in a site.

Earthworks or "Land Art," describes a movement that developed mainly in the United States, influenced by Conceptualism and Minimalism , as well as the environmental movement. Earthworks are usually site-specific, and use the land and natural (often living) materials, such as rocks, soil, trees, and other plants as medium. Many earth artists, like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer , select sites with damaged ecologies in order to suggest renewal and revitalization, and they tend to include time and the forces of nature as important considerations in their pieces, allowing for natural erosion, decay, or growth to occur and affect the work. Earth artists are also influenced by institutional critique , and by situating their works out-of-doors, within natural landscapes; they inherently challenge the dominance of museums and galleries, as well as the commodity status of art.

Street Art and Graffiti

The terms "graffiti" and "street art" are often used interchangeably, however the distinction between the two is based primarily upon aesthetic style and materials. Graffiti murals involve the use of spray paint, and are associated with a particular aesthetic, while Street art more generally refers to a range of aesthetic styles and the use of many materials including stencils, stickers, ceramic tiles, and more, with graffiti being one of its subcategories. The primary undercurrent that defines a work as Street art or graffiti, is its illegal and unsanctioned creation in public space.

Curator Ethel Seno asserts, "If we are to believe in the power of ideas, as we must, we must understand that it is not in the thoughts we keep to ourselves but only in sharing them that ideas attain their potential. This is the primary reason that public space offers such a fertile tableau for unsolicited artistic expression." The public-ness of graffiti can even elicit a participatory response on the part of the urban viewer. For instance, Ji Lee started The Bubble Project wherein he posts empty speech bubbles on top of advertisements, allowing passersby to write in their own comments, thoughts, and opinions.

Moreover, Street art can be done by anybody with the will to do it, as opposed to officially sanctioned Public Art, which usually involves certain artists who are selected or approached to do art works. There are street artists of all ages, races and ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and social classes, yet their voices become equal when transferred to the city walls. Furthermore, graffiti works are almost always done anonymously, with the use of a pseudonym, or 'tag,' which obscures the identity of the artist as well as their race, gender, age, etc.

Later Developments - After Public Art

A number of organizations support, commission, and fund Public Art projects in the United States and beyond. The National Endowment for the Arts (founded in 1965) recently renewed their commitment, in their 2018-2022 Strategic Plan , to "dedicate a portion of grantmaking funds to projects that integrate the arts into the fabric of community life," including permanent and temporary Public Art installations, and artist-facilitated public space design. A number of regional/state organizations operate with similar goals, such as the Public Art Fund, which was founded in 1977 with the aim of bringing Contemporary Art to the public spaces of New York City. However, with the political climate and governmental administrations constantly changing, such funds always exist with the potential for being deemed non-essential and getting cut.

Speaking of the "politics of representation," art historian and critic Rosalyn Deutsche writes that "the gallery and museum appear as the antitheses of public space," and many artists who work in public spaces share this sentiment, believing public space to offer a more open, uncensored, and accessible site of reception. In response to this criticism, more museums and galleries (such as the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh) are designating outdoor areas to include art to be seen by the public without paid entrance.

During the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 while most of the world's population were homebound, the Internet has emerged as a revolutionary new space for accessible engagement with art, as hundreds of institutions around the offered free virtual tours of their collections.

Nevertheless, Public Art continues to be the focus of criticism. For instance, art critic and curator Patricia Phillips has argued that Public Art, despite its idealistic origins, has come to do little more than merely occupy space and encourage mediocrity, and that the majority of Public Art has become overly bureaucratized (creating conflict between local communities and the general public). She notes that a common issue is that many "Public Art" projects are relegated to "negotiable" areas "that developers have 'left over' [...] after all of their available commercial and residential space has been rented or sold."

Phillips asserts that, as a result of such restrictions on where art can and should appear, many Public Art projects cater primarily to "profit-motivated market objectives" and mere beautification, rather than to a more profound interrogation of urban citizenship and space. For Phillips, a primary aim of Public Art should be to explore "the rich symbiotic topography of civic, social, and cultural forces," and, therefore, truly provocative Public Art often stands at odds with desires for such art to be inoffensive and unobtrusive. This explains the appeal of unsanctioned graffiti and Street Art interventions to artists who do not wish to be limited and censored in the act of creation.

Political theorist Chantal Mouffe asks "Can artistic practices still play a critical role in a society where the difference between art and advertising have become blurred and where artists and cultural workers have become a necessary part of capitalist production?"

Mouffe argues that public space will serve as the "battleground" of this struggle, and sees this in new "activist" art forms. This includes work that "more or less directly engages critically with political reality," like that of Barbara Kruger , Hans Haacke , and Santiago Sierra; "artworks exploring subject positions or identities defined by otherness, marginality, oppression or victimization."

Many artists also see Environmental Art as the key to the future of Public Art. American artist Patricia Johanson asserts that "Since the most critical issue in the years ahead is the preservation of life on earth, design should be approached for its ability to be life-supporting, rather than as an expression of the artist's angst , the pursuit of ideal relationships, a pilfering of art historical styles, or a quest for the new [...] Artists should have the courage to move away from work oriented to money and power and use their creativity to help solve critical problems in the 'real' world."

Useful Resources on Public Art

• My Art, My Life: An Autobiography Our Pick By Diego Rivera and Gladys March
• Diego Rivera. The Complete Murals Our Pick By Luis-Martín Lozano and Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera
• Mexican Muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros Our Pick By Desmond Rochfort
• Orozco: The Life and Death of a Mexican Revolutionary By Raymond Caballero
• Siqueiros: Biography of a Revolutionary Artist Our Pick By D. Anthony White
• José Clemente Orozco: An Autobiography By Jose Clemente Orozco
• Dialogues in Public Art Our Pick By Tom Finkelpearl
• Critical Issues in Public Art: Content, Context, and Controversy Our Pick By Harriet Senie
• Public Art (Now): Out of Time, Out of Place By Claire Doherty
• Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape By Kirk Savage
• Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies Our Pick By Sanford Levinson
• Structures of Memory: Understanding Urban Change in Berlin and Beyond Our Pick By Jennifer A. Jordan
• How a Revolutionary Art Became Official Culture: Murals, Museums, and the Mexican State Our Pick By Mary K. Coffey
• Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship Our Pick By Claire Bishop
• Art, Space and the City Our Pick By Malcolm Miles
• Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art Our Pick By Suzanne Lacy
• One Place after Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity Our Pick By Miwon Kwon
• Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974 By Philipp Kaiser and Miwon Kwon
• Undermining: A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West By Lucy R. Lippard
• Understanding Graffiti: Multidisciplinary Studies from Prehistory to the Present Our Pick By Troy R Lovata and Elizabeth Olton
• Art in the Streets Our Pick By Jeffrey Deitch
• Art and Public Space: Questions of Democracy Our Pick By Rosalyn Deutsche / Social Text / 1992
• What is a City? By Lewis Mumford / Architectural Record / 1937
• The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Washington Mall: Philosophical Thoughts on Political Iconography Our Pick By Charles L. Griswold and Stephen S. Griswold / Critical Inquiry / 1986
• Art and Democracy: Art as an Agonistic Intervention in Public Space By Chantal Mouffe / Open / 2008
• What Happens When Site-Specific Art Outlasts Its Surroundings? By Zoë Lescaze / The New York Times Style Magazine / May 13, 2019
• Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Wrapped Delights, Real and Imagined By Liza Foreman / New York Times / November 13, 2017
• Public Art Trip: New York City Our Pick The Art Assignment (PBS Digital Studios)
• How To Look at Public Art: A Six-Year-Old Explains KQED Art School
• How Public Art Challenges Public Space | Vardit Gross | TEDxWhiteCity Our Pick TEDx Talks
• Visions of Public Art: Social Design | Daan Roosegaarde World Economic Forum
• What Story DO America's Monuments Tell? | Alicia Scott | TEDxSavannah Our Pick TEDx Talks
• Why America is wrestling with Confederate monuments Our Pick PBS NewsHour
• Is graffiti art? Or vandalism? - Kelly Wall Our Pick TED-Ed
• Habermas: The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere Then & Now
• Why Murals? Our Pick The Art Assignment (PBS Digital Studios)
• With muralism, Mexico's rich tradition of public art extends well beyond its borders Our Pick PBS NewsHour
• Los Tres Grandes | Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945 Our Pick Whitney Museum of American Art
• The Case for Land Art Our Pick The Art Assignment (PBS Digital Studios)

Content compiled and written by Alexandra Duncan

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Kimberly Cooper

Public Art’s Benefits and Effects in the Community Essay

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• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
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Public art is any work of painting, sculpture, drawing or writing done by a creative mind in a public place. It is meant for the community or a wider society. Its significant purposes include telling a story- past, present, or even future. Public art, which always receives its funding from governments and NGOs, also has the responsibility to educate the society. This essay is going tackle its benefits and effects in the community (Cartiere, 2008).

There are several merits of public art in the community or even those found in the cities. For instance, sculptures and drawings create a feeling of consciousness and belonging (Coutts & Jokela, 2010). An example is the Liberty Statue that is associated with the US’s way of living. Public art also uplifts the name of a once forgotten neighborhood or society. In addition, drawings and sculptures teach the community especially on social and political issues.

An example is a painting depicting the dying of a mother hacked by a young man. This is meant to worry the conscience of a person who is admiring the piece of art. Furthermore, sculptures and writings in public educate the society on its past heroes and heroines in order to learn from them (Cartiere, 2008). Examples include the different Greek gods that represented a number of issues in the society of Greece. In addition, public art helps improve the beauty of the community through different types of paintings and murals.

There is also earning of foreign exchange when both local and domestic tourists come to view drawings and writings in the city and neighborhoods. In addition, sculptures and paintings enhance the environmental value of the city and make places of recreation look more humane. It also creates a domestic satisfaction and commercial pride of the city, therefore, attracting clients (Coutts & Jokela, 2010). Finally, public art creates jobs through employment of painters, sculptors and writers who ensure all the work of art is in place.

Public art like drawings and sculptures have an immense expression in terms of philosophy, population and culture. For instance, public art invokes the conscious and unconscious psychology of the society to help them reflect on social and political concerns (Davies, 2006). In addition, work of public art, for example, paintings reveal the world as it is and help the society in understanding life and existence. Furthermore, public art enables the community in expressing themselves to display inner emotions concerning feelings of love or hatred.

The population also influences the art they want in public. Either this can be through a sculpture or a painting, that expresses their preferences and tastes. In addition, it controls the thought process of the population and the way they perceive issues in the community.

It also communicates to the population and makes them a part of the government in making decisions affecting them (Coutts & Jokela, 2010). Furthermore, the ability of public art to achieve neutrality in representing both classes of the society is an effective way of expression.

Alternatively, public art affects the community in terms of culture in a number of ways. In terms of telling history, paintings, murals and drawings in the parks remind the society of its values and traditions. (Davies, 2006). Open art also glorifies a past when citizens see celebrated heroes and heroines in the form of sculptures and drawings. In addition, public art is known to express the hopes and fears of the community fostering a culture of understanding the society through work of art.

In conclusion, we can mention a few things. Public art as an entity belong to the citizens and should reflect their tastes and preferences. Here, we mean public arts like Liberty Statue in US and Eiffel Towers of Paris (Cartiere, 2008). There are also sculptures and historical drawings found in the old Rome that tell a history and pride of its people. Therefore, it is upon the governments and communities to preserve such art for coming generations.

Cartiere, C. (2008). The practice of public art . New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

Coutts, G. & Jokela, T. (2010). Art, community and environment: educational perspectives. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago .

Davies, S. (2006). The philosophy of art . Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

• Replacing of Physical Artefacts on the Digital Version
• From Modernism to Postmodernism
• Heroines' Analysis in Frankétienne's "Dézafi"
• The Dura Europos Synagogue
• Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera
• Reformation and Development of the Arts
• Comparing and contrasting the bronze doors of Bishop Bernward with Ghiberti's bronze doors at the Florence Baptistery
• Across Time and Space: Solving the Mysteries of the Ancient Cultures
• Impressionism History
• Arts Timeline between 1500 and 1950
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2018, December 27). Public Art's Benefits and Effects in the Community. https://ivypanda.com/essays/public-art/

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IvyPanda . 2018. "Public Art's Benefits and Effects in the Community." December 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/public-art/.

1. IvyPanda . "Public Art's Benefits and Effects in the Community." December 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/public-art/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Public Art's Benefits and Effects in the Community." December 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/public-art/.

Kaitlyn Garish

Arts and Human Values

Public Art Essay

I can say personally I love public art. It is such a way of open expression. Many people look to public art to find a connection when it comes to society and ways it connects one another. An amazing thing about public art is that you can be walking down the street and see crazy sculptures or murals, you do not always have to be in an art museum or gallery to see these pieces. Public art amazes me much more than gallery styled art, it is different and it takes a large amount of creativity.

In the reading for this week written by Erika Doss she speaks about the controversial pieces seen and also speaks of traditional public art and then the shift to modern public art.  Typical forms of public art are what we can normally find at any popular public area. Walking through the University of Oregon campus we can see some sculptures, I have seen many sculptures throughout the campus that would be described as public traditional art. When it comes to public art there will always be people who agree and who do not agree or even enjoy a piece. In the article it speaks about the sculpture of the FDR memorial in Washington D.C. Here it is shown that he has a disability and in a wheel chair. The controversy about this sculpture is that disability activists said that this piece was inadequate because it did not touch on all of the other aspects of FDR’s life.  One other piece spoken about was the piece in the Denver Airport. This piece proves the different types of public art that we can see in a modern day society(Doss 7).

Another example of public art is the installation in the Denver International Airport, a great place to express your art,”… to permanent public fixtures like Kinetic Light/Air Curtain, Antonette Rosato and Bill Maxwell’s mile-long installation of 5,280 minipropellers, backlit in blue neon, that spin wildly when trains pass by them at the Denver International Airport” (Doss 2).  This is an amazing piece of public art in a place that you wouldn’t really expect to see it.  This is such an unique place to put a installation, thousands of people a day take these trains to get in and out of the airport so it a great place to put an installation.

Many times we see public art in non traditional areas and ways. My favorite example of a public art is Banksy, who is a public English artist that has met headlands. He is known for is controversial art and the most amazing thing is keeping who he is a secret for all of these years. Many of his graffiti pieces have really expressed the political issues going on in the world. An example of one of his more famous pieces is the one he did in London of soldier painting peace. He presents art in a satirical way shows the expression of free speech and has touched on many political issues we see in the world today.

Public art drives communities together and is a way to reach out to people with the same views. Public art is always changing and that is important to understand. “Public art is artwork in the public realm, regardless of whether it is situated on public or private property, or whether it is acquired through public or private funding” (Doss 2). It is a wide variety of sculptures, murals, installations, and many more.  I think we will see many more unique public art pieces as the years go on. Public art reaches to a bigger crowd, a universal understanding of creativity.

Doss, E. (2006, October).  Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate . Retrieved from http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/networks/pan/doss_controversy.pdf j

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Public art is a reflection of how we see the world – the artist’s response to our time and place combined with our own sense of who we are.

Public art is not an art “form.” Its size can be huge or small. It can tower fifty feet high or call attention to the paving beneath your feet. Its shape can be abstract or realistic (or both), and it may be cast, carved, built, assembled, or painted. It can be site-specific or stand in contrast to its surroundings. What distinguishes public art is the unique association of how it is made, where it is, and what it means. Public art can express community values, enhance our environment, transform a landscape, heighten our awareness, or question our assumptions. Placed in public sites, this art is there for everyone, a form of collective community expression. Public art is a reflection of how we see the world – the artist’s response to our time and place combined with our own sense of who we are.

Who is the “public” for public art?

In a diverse society, all art cannot appeal to all people, nor should it be expected to do so. Art attracts attention; that is what it is supposed to do. Is it any wonder, then, that public art causes controversy? Varied popular opinion is inevitable, and it is a healthy sign that the public environment is acknowledged rather than ignored. To some degree, every public art project is an interactive process involving artists, architects, design professionals, community residents, civic leaders, politicians, approval agencies, funding agencies, and construction teams. The challenge of this communal process is to enhance rather than limit the artist’s involvement.

What is the “art” of public art?

As our society and its modes of expression evolve, so will our definitions of public art. Materials and methods change to reflect our contemporary culture. The process, guided by professional expertise and public involvement, should seek out the most imaginative and productive affinity between artist and community. Likewise, artists must bring to the work their artistic integrity, creativity, and skill. What is needed is a commitment to invention, boldness, and cooperation – not compromise.

Why public art?

Public art is a part of our public history, part of our evolving culture and our collective memory. It reflects and reveals our society and adds meaning to our cities. As artists respond to our times, they reflect their inner vision to the outside world, and they create a chronicle of our public experience.

Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).

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Why Public Art Is Good for Cities

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there’s a mural around every corner. Since 1984, local organization Mural Arts Philadelphia has created more than 3,600 murals on building exteriors across the city. According to its mission, the organization believes these striking works of public art have the power to “ transform public spaces and individual lives .”

“We always say that art ignites change,” says Jane Golden, the organization’s executive director. “There is something deeply catalytic about the work.”

Researchers agree: Studies show that public art has a host of benefits for communities. Its community-building powers can combat feelings of anxiety and social isolation . When locals participate in creating public art, these effects are amplified. A 2018 London-based survey found that 84% of respondents believed participating in public art projects benefited their well-being. 

Murals, in particular, are great for artistic placemaking and city marketing.

Public art also provides economic benefits, including new jobs and increased tourism. Murals, in particular, are great for artistic placemaking and city marketing. It ’s no surprise that art-focused bus and walking tours have grown popular in dozens of cities in recent years, from London, England, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Austin, Texas , where the city-led Art in Public Places program has been funding public art for more than 30 years. 

Elsewhere, public art is used to address practical problems like safety . For example, last year in Cincinnati, Ohio, nonprofit organization ArtWorks created a permanent, illuminated art installation to light a popular walking trail in the Avondale neighborhood. The installation has aesthetic benefits, but it has also improved the neighborhood’s walkability and residents’ safety after dark.

ArtWorks also provides economic benefits to Cincinnati residents. It creates jobs and fosters youth development through an apprenticeship program. Since its founding in 1996, the organization has employed more than 4,000 young people, ages 14–21, and 3,000 professional artists and creatives in art projects throughout the city. 

“Our apprentices are being mentored by professional artists on the job,” explains Sydney Fine, senior director of impact at ArtWorks. “So beyond being an arts nonprofit, we are also in many ways a career-readiness, positive youth development organization.”

​​Often, we look to public art as a way to address a challenge that a city is looking to solve.

However, one of the most meaningful effects of public art is that it creates what urban designer Mitchell Reardon calls “community fingerprints”—spaces that make people feel represented, foster community ties, and give people a sense of ownership and belonging in their neighborhoods.

As a senior planner at Vancouver-based urban planning and design consultancy Happy City , Reardon has seen how public art serves communities. “​​Often, we look to public art as a way to address a challenge that a city is looking to solve—say, a transportation issue or safe streets—while doing so in a way that is going to be meaningful for a broader cross section of people,” he explains. 

In the United States, public art depicting American communities carries on an artistic tradition that blossomed almost a century ago, when the Works Progress Administration, a Great Depression-era New Deal agency, began funding the visual arts. Through a program called the Federal Art Project , the Works Progress Administration employed more than 10,000 artists, who created a significant body of public art, including thousands of murals , between 1935 and 1943. 

According to Victoria Grieve, a historian of visual culture in America and author of The Federal Art Project and the Creation of Middlebrow Culture , supporters of the Federal Art Project shared a belief in “the relationship between the arts and the daily lives of the American people, and the educational, social, and economic benefits of widespread cultural access.” 

Many of the murals produced during the period represented this ethos and belonged to an emerging artistic tradition called “American Scene Painting,” a style of realism inspired by American history, mythology, and culture. Federal Art Project murals commissioned for airports, post offices, and public schools depicted the everyday lives and contributions of working-class Americans , American immigrants , and communities of color , meant to foster a shared “American” cultural identity.

While the representation of people of color in public art during the period was often problematic, and New Deal programs failed to meet many of civil rights leaders’ most pressing demands , the Federal Art Project still had some upsides for the nation’s marginalized communities. According to Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff, author of Black Culture and the New Deal: The Quest for Civil Rights in the Roosevelt Era , the program created needed opportunities for interracial cultural exchange and allowed artists of color to exercise “cultural self-determination.” 

In other words, New Deal funding and increased attention to public art allowed more artists—Native American, Chicano, Black, and Asian American—than ever before to paint their communities into American art. Those artists’ creations also allowed underrepresented communities to see themselves, perhaps for the first time, on the walls of their cities. Today, Mural Arts Philadelphia and ArtWorks honor the spirit of this work. 

James Daniel Burns, a staff artist at Mural Arts Philadelphia, has experienced this firsthand. “Sometimes, [a mural] can propel the identity of a place into fruition,” he says.

Fine agrees. She says a mural of Cincinnati-based civil rights activist Louise Shropshire on the side of Avondale’s main recreation center has helped turn the location into a vibrant community hub. The mural was created in 2019 as part of a new quality-of-life plan for the neighborhood. “The main focus of the plan is increasing safety and wellness,” explains Fine. “And so, murals have been a part of that. Documenting the important historical figures that have come from a neighborhood and increasing that pride, which then further activates that neighborhood in that space,” she explains.

Both Mural Arts Philadelphia and ArtWorks take great care to ensure locals feel represented in the murals in their neighborhoods. The organizations partner with local community leaders, organizers, and activists to plan and implement new projects. In Cincinnati, this process takes an average of eight months. At Mural Arts Philadelphia, things move much faster. Most of its murals begin with an application filed by someone living in the community where a project will be implemented. They’re expected to rally a community around the proposed project before applying. After that, creating a mural takes only 4 to 8 weeks. ​​At the end of the process, Golden says people feel real ownership of the work.

The mural created a community of love, a community of care.

These collaborative planning processes also forge strong relationships within and between communities. Staff artist Burns says he has a trove of personal stories for each of the projects he has completed in Philadelphia, “rooted in the relationships with people who shape these projects.” ​​

Those relationships last long after the paint has dried. Golden says that Mural Arts Philadelphia also remains a fierce advocate for its art and the communities its projects foster after completion. A mural on South 30th Street in West Philadelphia is an excellent example. The mural depicts a person alone in a small raft on a turbulent sea—a metaphor for the feelings that locals who had contemplated suicide described to Burns, the lead artist on the project. 

The mural, completed in 2012, resulted from a two-year-long collaboration between Mural Arts, the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The project also engaged more than 1,200 community members. It was meant to shed light on youth suicide rates in Philadelphia, which were rising at the time, and provide a voice for survivors, attempters, and their families and friends. 

“The mural created a community of love, a community of care, where people kept coming together long after the mural was created and finished,” Golden says. “It was really inspiring.”

When Mural Arts got word that a new dorm would be built in front of the mural, obstructing the view of it from the street, Golden says her team organized with the community that had contributed to the project and others in West Philadelphia. They sent a strong message to the developer. “‘Look,’ we said, ‘this project is really important,’” Golden says. The group was able to secure a donation from the developers to create a new mural. The new project, which is still in its early stages, will bring the same collaborators together again to create a mural with a similar vision in a central location. 

By holding developers accountable and addressing practical problems, such as street safety, organizations like Mural Arts Philadelphia and ArtWorks create clear value for their communities through their work. The same is true of dozens of other public art organizations, including the Bay Area Mural Program in Oakland, California; the Portland Street Art Alliance in Portland, Oregon; and the Chicago Public Art Group in Chicago, Illinois. The work itself also fosters a sense of communal ownership over space, strengthens neighborhood ties, and allows folks to see themselves represented on the walls of their cities. The message it sends is clear: Public art is good for us and our cities. 

“I think a city that is vibrant and thriving has art right at the center,” Golden says.

CORRECTION: This article was updated at 8:46 a.m. on Dec. 7, 2021, to correct the spelling of Sydney Fine ’s name.  Read our corrections policy here.

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Public Art: A Critical Approach

In this dissertation, I provide a philosophical analysis of public art. I focus on its “publicness,” and draw implications at the level of public art’s ontology, appreciation, and value. I uphold the view that an artwork is public when received within a public sphere rather than within artworld institutions. I further argue that, as a consequence of the peculiar nature of its reception, public art possesses an essential value that is distinctively non-aesthetic: to promote political participation and to encourage tolerance. By examining how public art and its value(s) relate to the public domain in the context of pluralistic democracies, this dissertation also contributes to a fuller understanding of an important aspect of our social world.

Related Papers

Antonio Norsworthy

Art of nearly any style or medium can evoke at once a deeply personal, subjective experience, yet also unite disparate and diverse sentiment within individuals based on the common experiences, values, and ideology found within nearly any given cultural context. Due to the diversity inherent in human experience it would however be difficult to account for a representation of all individuals’ subjective taste and opinion within a singular definition of public; indeed, there are many publics. Yet I would contend it is the very nature of the subjective individual experiences of human emotion--however nuanced in the context of their intensity, duration, or origin--which allows a framework for a common perception of art. Thus, Hilde Hein, in her essay entitled What is Public Art? Time Place and Meaning, grossly misstates her characterization of public art as an “oxymoron” (Niell and Ridley 406).

Aleksandra Kaminska

Syllabus from a graduate seminar. Description: The central problematic of this course is the public domain as a zone of contestation, transformation, exchange, and participation. We will begin by examining the relationship between public art and the elusive concepts of " the public " and the public sphere. We will consider the role of public art as a prism through which to understand wider cultural, societal, and political issues and trends. Public implies more than moving outside the gallery, and entails new forms of interaction between artists, audiences, and communities. Some themes we will address include art in virtual and physical space; site-specificity, and expanded notions of site; monumentality and ephemerality; performance, intervention, and activism; and interactive strategies such as dialogue, relationality, and participation. The semester is organized broadly into three parts: examining conceptions of the public(s), interrogating ideas of place and site, and considering select curatorial and artistic strategies. The course will engage with examples of artistic projects, exhibitions, and events, and include screenings of documentaries as well as guest speakers. Students will contribute to a class blog and develop a curatorial proposal as a final project.

Urban regeneration: a challenge for public art

Antoni Remesar

Public Art. An Ethical Approach Public art is under question. Taking art out of the galleries and into the public domain is not necessarily a straightforward step. Public Art: Towards a Theoretical Framework In other forums in those which is intended to analyse the force of the public art concept, appear always two problems that, generally, they distort the environment and hinder a discussion in depth about of the topic. The first issue makes reference to the fact of defending that all art is public art, weakening thus the possible development of the concept and including it in the swampy dimension of the art definition. The second, bounded in good measure to the first, makes reference to the rejection of the "public art" term and to the recovery of the concept "art for public spaces".

Open Philosophy

Mark Kingwell

Cameron Cartiere

Dr Holly Arden

Arts discourse abounds with references and concessions to the public – that disorderedly mass of individuals who may stumble across the threshold of the public museum. Likewise, the public is invoked in conjunction with public engagement with art, or with public galleries, public funding, public art and so on. In spite of the institutional and critical focus on art’s public dimensions intensifying since the 1990s (from Suzanne Lacy’s ‘new genre public art’ to Nicolas Bourriaud’s ‘relational aesthetics’, Grant Kester’s writings on ‘dialogical art’ and Claire Bishop’s on participation) it seems an oversight that the relationship between art and the public as such has not been considered in any significant critical depth. At the same time, much of this critical discourse has appeared within a politico-economic climate of neo-liberal capitalism, which has devastatingly (re)fashioned the public in its own image. This article argues that it is precisely this potential dimension of the public that a number of contemporary artists are testing or seeking to redeem. It contends that the public’s definitive excess, the impossibility of pinning it down, is also its potent political and democratic potential. I focus on participatory works by the former collaborative duo Komar and Melamid, and by Stuart Ringholt, arguing that each work contributes to unique understandings of the public with respect to contemporary art.

Nil Ilkbasaran

Art as the Property of Citizens is a proposal that addresses the following question: how can we conceive of participatory art in its socially engaged ten- dencies and contingencies? It reads the relation of art and citizenship in two ways: art as a process that becomes ‘owned’ by citizens and art as creativity defined as an inherent ‘quality’ of citizens. Art, in the praxis of socially en- gaged participatory works, is an experiment with a new constellation of the social that can exist within the parameters of daily life and can empower its participants to produce solutions to issues of concern. Aesthetics is in the process of creating new constellations in relations and new configurations in exchange systems that could initiate a type of social transformation.

The Everyday Practice of Public Art

Art & the Public Sphere

Pascal Gielen

Philosophy & social criticism

This article contributes to studies in democratic theory and civic engagement by critically reflecting on the role of contemporary art for the transformation of the public sphere. It begins with a short assessment of the role of art during the Enlightenment, when the communicative function and the public role of art were most clearly articulated. It refers in particular to the analogies between aesthetic and political judgement in order to understand the emancipatory role of artistic production within a philosophical project centred on reason’s capacity to liberate itself from the dogmatism of authority and from the errors of superstition, both elements considered crucial to the development of a functioning public sphere. The article then discusses the historical transformation of art following a number of philosophical and sociological critiques to a similar project of the Enlightenment and assesses the attempt of historical avant-gardes to appropriate this critique yet maintain art’s emancipatory function in society. Having examined some problems raised by these attempts, the article turns to the analogies with contemporary artistic production. It examines the role of contemporary visual art in the public sphere and shows how the anti-rationalist theories articulated to reflect on contemporary works of art, and the works themselves, both fail to develop art’s emancipatory role in society. Without rethinking artistic experience in a way that places emphasis on reason’s capacity for critical and constructive selfunderstanding and without reconsidering art theory in a way that brings back the emphasis on the emancipatory role of rational communication, contemporary art, far from contributing to the revitalization of the public sphere, will contribute to its decline.

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Public Art: An Introduction

What exactly is "public art"? Public art differs from art produced for display in a museum, gallery, or other public place, and from art collected by individuals, in three major ways:

• It is commissioned by a very public process, in which the community has a clear and defined role in selecting the artist, the site, and the artwork
• Public money funds the creation of the art piece, especially in the case of percent-for-art ordinances. This arrangement means that the art has many audiences to please, not just the artist and the selection committee, and that there is a degree of accountability assumed about the artwork that artists do not encounter as much when creating work for private use or display.
• It is associated with a sense of longevity. Whereas a work of studio art or in a museum collection may be sold or removed at a predetermined time, a work of public art, is protected by the Visual Artists Rights Act and must go through an official process (called Deaccession) if it is to be sold or removed.. It also must be designed to rigorous standards, as it is often expected to last from 20-50 years, if not more, in an outdoor, fairly unprotected environment.

For general purposes, the term "public art" refers to the following kinds of artworks and media:

• Sculpture: in the round, bas relief, kinetic works (mobiles), electronic works, light works; figurative, abstract, statuary; formed from any material that provides the type of durability required for the project;
• Mosaics including engravings, carvings, frescoes;
• Fountains or water elements;
• Fine art crafts: clay, fiber (tapestries), textiles, wood, metal, plastics, stained glass;
• Mixed-media video and computer-generated works, collage, photography;
• Installations;
• Earthworks and environmental artworks;
• Decorative, ornamental, or functional elements designed by an artist;
• Murals, drawings, and paintings; and

Generally speaking, a work of art cannot be considered as "public art" if it is not one-of-a-kind or an original (in the case of a work of sculpture or painting) or it is reproduced in editions of over 200 (in the case of fine art prints and photographs). In general, reproductions, unlimited editions/mass productions, decorative, ornamental, and functional elements of architecture, directional elements such as super graphics, signage, and color coding, and landscape usually are NOT considered artworks unless done by an artist. (At top: Lucien Labaudt mural depicting San Francisco life, the Beach House, San Francisco, CA)

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What is public art.

By EDEN Gallery ,

Posted Jun 30, 2021 ,

In Art Blog, Alec Monopoly, David Kracov, Eduardo Kobra

Public art is a visual art form specifically created to be enjoyed by the general public. It is the opposite of private artwork, which is sold and displayed in private homes and collections.

Public art can inspire future generations and be a valuable asset to many communities. This article will discuss public art, why it is so important and how it is created.  

Public Art Definition

Public art is art created for general public consumption. Public art is often commissioned by public institutions for a specific site.

Public art must always be, by definition, visually and physically accessible to the general population. Therefore it is usually installed or staged in easily accessible public spaces. These spaces are generally outside. Public works are most often seen in city parks, squares, or streets that residents can easily reach.

Public artworks are often created in response to the place and community in which they reside. Public artwork is usually rooted in place and does not go on touring exhibits. The unchangeable location for public art distinguishes it from private art, which may move around and be displayed in various locations as it changes ownership.

What Is Considered Public Art?

Public art can be any style and size, from large to small. Sculptures and murals are common public art forms, but the term ‘public art’ does not explicitly apply to any particular art style or art form. 

Because public art is often commissioned for an outdoor space many examples of public art are sculptures. Some other forms of art, such as photography or painting , are not well suited to being displayed outdoors. 

Public art can include many different styles of art. Across the world and throughout history, public art has included murals, sculptures, memorials, public architecture, or landscape architectural work. Modern forms of public art can consist of crowdsourced community art, digital new media, experiential art, performances, and even festivals.

What Is the Purpose of Public Art?

Public artworks are usually funded locally and intended to benefit their local community. They benefit the public as an object that beautifies a local neighborhood or entices visitors. 

Some ancient public sculptures and relief sculptures from the classical period have been removed from public spaces. You can find some of these artworks in museums or private collections, while others were stolen or lost. In some cases, this movement of public art was undertaken to preserve the artworks. 

However, in several other cases, the removal of public artworks is more controversial. For example, The Parthenon Marbles were removed from the Greek Parthenon temple. The Marbles are now on display in the British Museum in London. Many people believe they should be returned to Athens and displayed as originally intended: with the remainder of the Parthenon building. 

Public artwork is designed for a specific setting and for public viewing. They are often funded directly or indirectly by local residents through taxes or fundraising. Moving these works out of the public eye steals from the community and goes against the ethics of public art. Removing this work and placing it in a new setting is not the display the artist had intended. 

What Are Examples of Public Art?

Examples of public art can be found worldwide, but many of the grandest or oldest examples are found in major metropolitan cities. 

The Piazza Della Signoria in Florence, Italy, is one of the best examples of classical public art. This public square features many classical sculptures, many of which are original, and others, such as Michelangelo’s David , are replications. The first sculpture, Donatello’s Marzocco , was placed in the square In 1416. 

Some of the original sculptures have been moved to Italian museums for preservation. But several other statues in Piazza Della Signoria, mainly those cast in bronze, have remained in the square for hundreds of years.

You may have seen other famous public artworks without fully realizing it. Many public artworks are major tourist landmarks at destinations around the world. 

For example, The Statue of Liberty, or Mount Rushmore, are both famous American public artworks. Nothing represents the British city of Newcastle more than its public artwork, the Angel of the North . Barcelona’s Park Güell , one of the city’s biggest attractions, is filled with sculptures by Antoni Gaudí.

Murals have long been an essential form of public art. Places such as San Francisco’s Mission District are full of murals available for public viewing. In more recent times, cities have turned to street artists to beautify urban areas with public art. 

Famous street art districts have encouraged street and graffiti artists to come and paint on their walls by commission or during street art festivals. Examples of this kind of public street artwork can be seen in Bristol, London, New York, Miami, Berlin, and many other cities. 

Some murals and street artworks can be small, but many of the most famous public murals are large-scale. The street artist Eduardo Kobra currently holds the record for the largest public art graffiti mural in the world. His work Etnies , found in Rio de Janeiro, is fifty-one feet high and 560 feet long.

Famous Public Artworks

• Statue of Liberty, by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, New York, United States
• Mount Rushmore, by Gutzon and Lincoln Borglum, South Dakota, United States
• Puppy, by Jeff Koons, Bilbao, Spain
• Les Voyageurs, by Bruno Catalano, Marseilles, France
• Vigeland Sculpture Park, multiple works by Gustav Vigeland, Oslo Norway
• Franz Kafka’s Head, by David Cerny, Prague Czech Republic
• Spoonbridge and Cherry, by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Minneapolis, USA
• Escadaria Selarón, by Jorge Selarón, Rio de Janeiro Brazil
• Prada Marfa, by Elmgreen and Dragset, Texas, United States
• Parc Güell, by Antoni Gaudí, Barcelona, Spain
• Maman by Louise Bourgeois, London, United Kingdom
• East Side Gallery, by multiple artists, Berlin Wall, Germany
• Love, by Robert Indiana, Philadelphia, USA
• Pumpkin, by Yayoi Kusama, Naoshima, Japan
• Flying Balloon Girl, by Banksy, West Bank Barrier
• The Shoes on the Danube Bank, by Can Togay and Gyula Pauer, Budapest, Hungary
• Turning The World Upside Down, by Anish Kapoor, Jerusalem, Israel
• Stravinsky Fountain, by Niki de Saint Phalle, Paris, France
• La Joute, by Jean-Paul Riopelle, Montréal, Canada
• Watts Towers, by Simon Rodia, Los Angeles, United States

Artists Who Specialize in Public Artworks

Some artists dedicate much of their lives to creating public artworks. Sometimes by commission, and other times of their own volition. The Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland has spent more than 20 years building over 200 pieces in Norway’s Vigeland Sculpture Park. The Mexican muralist Diego Rivera also spent much of his life creating public works. Graffiti and street artists like Banksy naturally specialize in public artworks as well. 

Why Is Public Art Important?

For many people, public art is the first or only art they will experience in their lives. Many people do not have the means to collect art in their homes or visit an art museum or gallery. Public art brings art to the people and democratizes it. Public artwork can inspire the next generation of artists or spark a conversation or social change.

Some artists who choose to create public art use the platform for political expression. For example, American street artist, Keith Haring, is a social activist who used his murals to challenge the taboos around homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic. Artists can use public art to challenge societal norms, commemorate and memorialize, or criticize politics or society. 

How Public Art Benefits a Community

Public artworks can add enormous value to a community. Not only do artworks help beautiful a city or town, they add to the cultural and economic vitality of a community. 

Public artworks become landmarks for both locals and visitors, encouraging tourism in a local economy. Some of the world’s most visited tourist attractions are public artworks, such as Brazil’s Christ The Redeemer, Paris’s Eiffel Tower, New York’s Charging Bull, The Berlin Wall, or The Hollywood sign. 

Public art is considered an essential part of urban design because it contributes to a community’s identity by setting a community apart from others and attracting visitors to see its uniqueness.

Public art also encourages pride in a community and helps provide a sense of belonging. Public art sparks joy in day-to-day life, and by doing so, can enhance the quality of life for both local residents and visitors.

How Does Public Art Get Created?

Public artworks are typically commissioned and managed by a local municipal agency. The most successful public art projects usually involve extensive input at the onset of the project from both the artist and the community. 

Public artworks can take many years to be approved, funded, and created. Many people play a role in funding and create public artworks, especially those of a large scale. A public art project will involve the artist or artists, architects, designers, local residents, local civic leaders, politicians, local arts agencies, approval agencies, funding agencies, and sometimes even construction teams.

Appreciating Public Artwork

It’s not possible to buy public contemporary artwork. Some older public artworks are now in private collections or museums, but contemporary artworks are usually kept and protected by the communities that commissioned them. 

However, some artists who create street art or public artworks, such as Eduardo Kobra and Alec Monopoly , also produce artwork that private collectors can purchase. You can view, enjoy and buy original artworks online from Eden Gallery’s website or from our art galleries around the world .

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Essay on Art

500 words essay on art.

Each morning we see the sunshine outside and relax while some draw it to feel relaxed. Thus, you see that art is everywhere and anywhere if we look closely. In other words, everything in life is artwork. The essay on art will help us go through the importance of art and its meaning for a better understanding.

What is Art?

For as long as humanity has existed, art has been part of our lives. For many years, people have been creating and enjoying art.  It expresses emotions or expression of life. It is one such creation that enables interpretation of any kind.

It is a skill that applies to music, painting, poetry, dance and more. Moreover, nature is no less than art. For instance, if nature creates something unique, it is also art. Artists use their artwork for passing along their feelings.

Thus, art and artists bring value to society and have been doing so throughout history. Art gives us an innovative way to view the world or society around us. Most important thing is that it lets us interpret it on our own individual experiences and associations.

Art is similar to live which has many definitions and examples. What is constant is that art is not perfect or does not revolve around perfection. It is something that continues growing and developing to express emotions, thoughts and human capacities.

Importance of Art

Art comes in many different forms which include audios, visuals and more. Audios comprise songs, music, poems and more whereas visuals include painting, photography, movies and more.

You will notice that we consume a lot of audio art in the form of music, songs and more. It is because they help us to relax our mind. Moreover, it also has the ability to change our mood and brighten it up.

After that, it also motivates us and strengthens our emotions. Poetries are audio arts that help the author express their feelings in writings. We also have music that requires musical instruments to create a piece of art.

Other than that, visual arts help artists communicate with the viewer. It also allows the viewer to interpret the art in their own way. Thus, it invokes a variety of emotions among us. Thus, you see how essential art is for humankind.

Without art, the world would be a dull place. Take the recent pandemic, for example, it was not the sports or news which kept us entertained but the artists. Their work of arts in the form of shows, songs, music and more added meaning to our boring lives.

Therefore, art adds happiness and colours to our lives and save us from the boring monotony of daily life.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Art

All in all, art is universal and can be found everywhere. It is not only for people who exercise work art but for those who consume it. If there were no art, we wouldn’t have been able to see the beauty in things. In other words, art helps us feel relaxed and forget about our problems.

FAQ of Essay on Art

Question 1: How can art help us?

Answer 1: Art can help us in a lot of ways. It can stimulate the release of dopamine in your bodies. This will in turn lower the feelings of depression and increase the feeling of confidence. Moreover, it makes us feel better about ourselves.

Question 2: What is the importance of art?

Answer 2: Art is essential as it covers all the developmental domains in child development. Moreover, it helps in physical development and enhancing gross and motor skills. For example, playing with dough can fine-tune your muscle control in your fingers.

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Montaigne on Death and the Art of Living

By maria popova.

In one of his 107 such exploratory essays, titled “That to Study Philosophy is to Learn to Die,” Montaigne turns to mortality — the subject of one of this year’s best psychology and philosophy books — and points to the understanding of death as a prerequisite for the understanding of life, for the very art of living .

Montaigne examines our conflicted relationship with dying:

Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest, as the means that accommodates human life with a soft and easy tranquillity, and gives us a pure and pleasant taste of living, without which all other pleasure would be extinct. […] The end of our race is death; ’tis the necessary object of our aim, which, if it fright us, how is it possible to advance a step without a fit of ague? The remedy the vulgar use is not to think on’t; but from what brutish stupidity can they derive so gross a blindness? They must bridle the ass by the tail: ‘Qui capite ipse suo instituit vestigia retro,’ [‘Who in his folly seeks to advance backwards’ — Lucretius, iv. 474] ’tis no wonder if he be often trapped in the pitfall. They affright people with the very mention of death, and many cross themselves, as it were the name of the devil. And because the making a man’s will is in reference to dying, not a man will be persuaded to take a pen in hand to that purpose, till the physician has passed sentence upon and totally given him over, and then betwixt and terror, God knows in how fit a condition of understanding he is to do it. The Romans, by reason that this poor syllable death sounded so harshly to their ears and seemed so ominous, found out a way to soften and spin it out by a periphrasis, and instead of pronouncing such a one is dead, said, ‘Such a one has lived,’ or ‘Such a one has ceased to live’ … provided there was any mention of life in the case, though past, it carried yet some sound of consolation. … I make account to live, at least, as many more. In the meantime, to trouble a man’s self with the thought of a thing so far off were folly. But what? Young and old die upon the same terms; no one departs out of life otherwise than if he had but just before entered into it; neither is any man so old and decrepit, who, having heard of Methuselah, does not think he has yet twenty good years to come. Fool that thou art! who has assured unto thee the term of life? Thou dependest upon physicians’ tales: rather consult effects and experience. According to the common course of things, ’tis long since that thou hast lived by extraordinary favour; thou hast already outlived the ordinary term of life. And that it is so, reckon up thy acquaintance, how many more have died before they arrived at thy age than have attained unto it; and of those who have ennobled their lives by their renown, take but an account, and I dare lay a wager thou wilt find more who have died before than after five-and-thirty years of age. … How many several ways has death to surprise us?

Rather than indulging the fear of death, Montaigne calls for dissipating it by facing it head-on, with awareness and attention — an approach common in Eastern spirituality:

[L]et us learn bravely to stand our ground, and fight him. And to begin to deprive him of the greatest advantage he has over us, let us take a way quite contrary to the common course. Let us disarm him of his novelty and strangeness, let us converse and be familiar with him, and have nothing so frequent in our thoughts as death. Upon all occasions represent him to our imagination in his every shape; at the stumbling of a horse, at the falling of a tile, at the least prick with a pin, let us presently consider, and say to ourselves, ‘Well, and what if it had been death itself?’ and, thereupon, let us encourage and fortify ourselves. Let us evermore, amidst our jollity and feasting, set the remembrance of our frail condition before our eyes, never suffering ourselves to be so far transported with our delights, but that we have some intervals of reflecting upon, and considering how many several ways this jollity of ours tends to death, and with how many dangers it threatens it. The Egyptians were wont to do after this manner, who in the height of their feasting and mirth, caused a dried skeleton of a man to be brought into the room to serve for a memento to their guests: ‘Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Grata superveniet, quae non sperabitur, hora.’ ‘Think each day when past is thy last; the next day, as unexpected, will be the more welcome.’ — [Hor., Ep., i. 4, 13.] Where death waits for us is uncertain; let us look for him everywhere. The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; he who has learned to die has unlearned to serve. There is nothing evil in life for him who rightly comprehends that the privation of life is no evil: to know, how to die delivers us from all subjection and constraint. Paulus Emilius answered him whom the miserable King of Macedon, his prisoner, sent to entreat him that he would not lead him in his triumph, ‘Let him make that request to himself.’ — [ Plutarch, Life of Paulus Aemilius, c. 17; Cicero, Tusc., v. 40. ] In truth, in all things, if nature do not help a little, it is very hard for art and industry to perform anything to purpose. I am in my own nature not melancholic, but meditative; and there is nothing I have more continually entertained myself withal than imaginations of death, even in the most wanton time of my age.

One of Montaigne’s most timeless and timeliest points strikes at the heart of our present productivity-culture, reminding us that the whole of life is contained in our inner life , not in the checklist of our accomplishments:

We should always, as near as we can, be booted and spurred, and ready to go, and, above all things, take care, at that time, to have no business with any one but one’s self: — ‘Quid brevi fortes jaculamur avo Multa?’ [‘Why for so short a life tease ourselves with so many projects?’ — Hor., Od., ii. 16, 17.]

He presages the “real artists ship” mantra Steve Job made famous five centuries later:

A man must design nothing that will require so much time to the finishing, or, at least, with no such passionate desire to see it brought to perfection. We are born to action: ‘Quum moriar, medium solvar et inter opus.’ [‘When I shall die, let it be doing that I had designed.’ — Ovid, Amor., ii. 10, 36.] I would always have a man to be doing, and, as much as in him lies, to extend and spin out the offices of life; and then let death take me planting my cabbages, indifferent to him, and still less of my gardens not being finished.

The essence of his argument is the idea that learning to die is essential for learning to live:

If I were a writer of books, I would compile a register, with a comment, of the various deaths of men: he who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live. […] Peradventure, some one may object, that the pain and terror of dying so infinitely exceed all manner of imagination, that the best fencer will be quite out of his play when it comes to the push. Let them say what they will: to premeditate is doubtless a very great advantage; and besides, is it nothing to go so far, at least, without disturbance or alteration? Moreover, Nature herself assists and encourages us: if the death be sudden and violent, we have not leisure to fear; if otherwise, I perceive that as I engage further in my disease, I naturally enter into a certain loathing and disdain of life. I find I have much more ado to digest this resolution of dying, when I am well in health, than when languishing of a fever; and by how much I have less to do with the commodities of life, by reason that I begin to lose the use and pleasure of them, by so much I look upon death with less terror. Which makes me hope, that the further I remove from the first, and the nearer I approach to the latter, I shall the more easily exchange the one for the other.

With a philosophical lens fringing on quantum physics, Montaigne reminds us of the fundamental bias of the arrow of time as we experience it:

Not only the argument of reason invites us to it — for why should we fear to lose a thing, which being lost, cannot be lamented? — but, also, seeing we are threatened by so many sorts of death, is it not infinitely worse eternally to fear them all, than once to undergo one of them? … What a ridiculous thing it is to trouble ourselves about taking the only step that is to deliver us from all trouble! As our birth brought us the birth of all things, so in our death is the death of all things included. And therefore to lament that we shall not be alive a hundred years hence, is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago. … Long life, and short, are by death made all one; for there is no long, nor short, to things that are no more.

He returns — poignantly, poetically — to the meaning of life :

All the whole time you live, you purloin from life and live at the expense of life itself. The perpetual work of your life is but to lay the foundation of death. You are in death, whilst you are in life, because you still are after death, when you are no more alive; or, if you had rather have it so, you are dead after life, but dying all the while you live; and death handles the dying much more rudely than the dead, and more sensibly and essentially. If you have made your profit of life, you have had enough of it; go your way satisfied.

Half a millennium before Carl Sagan, Montaigne channels the sentiment at the heart of Pale Blue Dot :

Life in itself is neither good nor evil; it is the scene of good or evil as you make it.’ And, if you have lived a day, you have seen all: one day is equal and like to all other days. There is no other light, no other shade; this very sun, this moon, these very stars, this very order and disposition of things, is the same your ancestors enjoyed, and that shall also entertain your posterity.

He paints death as the ultimate equalizer:

Give place to others, as others have given place to you. Equality is the soul of equity. Who can complain of being comprehended in the same destiny, wherein all are involved?

The heart of Montaigne’s case falls somewhere between John Cage’s Zen philosophy and the canine state of being-in-the-moment :

Wherever your life ends, it is all there. The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little. Make use of time while it is present with you. It depends upon your will, and not upon the number of days, to have a sufficient length of life.

He concludes with an admonition about the solipsistic superficiality of death’s ritualization:

I believe, in truth, that it is those terrible ceremonies and preparations wherewith we set it out, that more terrify us than the thing itself; a new, quite contrary way of living; the cries of mothers, wives, and children; the visits of astounded and afflicted friends; the attendance of pale and blubbering servants; a dark room, set round with burning tapers; our beds environed with physicians and divines; in sum, nothing but ghostliness and horror round about us; we seem dead and buried already. … Happy is the death that deprives us of leisure for preparing such ceremonials.

Michel de Montaigne: The Complete Essays is now in the public domain and is available as a free download in multiple formats from Project Gutenberg .

Public domain illustrations via Flickr Commons

— Published December 12, 2012 — https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/12/12/montaigne-on-death-and-the-art-of-living/ —

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