Public Art
Guide to Architecture, Sculpture, Monuments, Statues, Stained Glass, Environmental Earthworks and other Community Artworks.
Visual Arts in Cork

Public Art

Definition

In theory, the term 'Public Art' denotes all works of art - from sculpture, like monuments and statues, to fine art painting, installations, earthworks and any other item of visual art - which are designed for and sited in a space accessible to the general public, although in practice a significant percentage of such artworks end up in storage, or in private government offices.

Thus in practice, the phrase Public art primarily describes all works of art purchased with public funds, irrespective of where it is situated in the community, or who sees it.

One of Ireland's most respected public artists is Rachel Joynt. Another is the inspirational Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie.

Available to the Community at Large

However, the traditional concept of public art is rooted in the ability of the public to view it. For example, the secular Greek and Roman cities were early advocates of the edifying virtues of social art (predominantly sculpture), capable of being viewed and appreciated by the community at large: as exemplified by the distribution of mass-produced statues of the Roman Emperor to all corners of the empire, in order to demonstrate the benign majesty of Rome. This concept of communal aesthetics or propaganda was vigorously implemented in most Pagan societies, as well as in later Christian communities. Indeed, the Christian church celebrated the end of the Dark Ages with the construction of the great gothic-style cathedrals of France, such as Chartres, Rheims, Amiens and Notre Dame de Paris. Adorned with beautiful relief-sculpture, altarpieces and stained glass art, these monumental constructions were public works of art, designed to inspire the community with religious devotion. Since it was the church not the public purse of the state who financed these (and later) artworks, a better definition of the phrase 'Public art' would seem to be: all art designed to be freely available to the community at large.

Locations and Types

Sites for public art are typically located in urban centres and may include squares, plaza or pedestrian areas, main thoroughfares, the approaches to public buildings such as government offices, law courts, municipal utilities and transport centres, airports, museums and libraries, university or college campuses and so on. In addition, public artworks may be sited inside national or local government offices, as well as churches or other public places of worship. They include temporary displays, such as Installations (eg. environmental or land art events, such as Andy Goldsworthy's 'Snowballs', London, 2000), public exhibitions of painting, sculpture or rare objets d'art (eg. Faberge Eggs), or temporary architectural constructions to celebrate particular events (eg. the Millennium Dome etc).

Public art also encompasses more traditional permanent works such as commemorative sculpture (eg. Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square London, or the Arc de Triomphe in Paris), architectural sculpture (eg. Ian Ritchie's The Spire of Dublin, 'the spike'), pure sculpture (eg. the Chicago Picasso), murals (eg. Pablo Picasso's 'Guernica' at the UN building), permanent fine art collections of drawings, illuminated manuscripts, paintings and precious metalwork, or public displays of contemporary art forms such as Assemblage, Conceptual, Installation or Performance art.

In addition, public art also encompasses large scale earthworks, such as Robert Smithson's 'Spiral Jetty' created in Utah (1970), and Christo Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude's encirclement of eleven Florida islands in pink fabric (1983).

Renaissance Public Art

Undoubtedly the greatest era for social or public art was the Italian Renaissance, whose artworks - unlike those of the Northern Renaissance - were sponsored entirely by the church or civic authorities. Giotto's fresco painting in the Scrovegni Chapel Padua, Donatello's 'David', and Michelangelo's bronze sculptures 'Pieta' and 'David', as well as his fresco murals on the ceiling and wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, all bear witness to this upsurge in community art.

Per Cent for Art Schemes

In recent times, municipal authorities have developed new fund-raising policies, relating to the construction of publicly financed buildings, namely the Percent for Art Scheme. This typically involves the reservation of 1 percent of the construction costs of the project (up to a fixed maximum amount), for the purchase of artworks which are then displayed to the public.

Public Art As Social Propaganda

Governments and institutional authorities have frequently commissioned works of art for propaganda purposes. Governments have resorted to this practice ever since the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, as has the church - witness the latter's patronage of Mannerist and Baroque art in its campaign to reassert its influence during the Counter Reformation.

The most blatant modern example of public art being used for political purposes concerns the Socialist Realist art movement, launched in Soviet Russia by Joseph Stalin to support the country's drive for industrial self-sufficiency after 1927. Socialist Realism aimed to glorify the achievements of the Communist regime through a ubiquitous display of monumental heroic style posters, painting and sculpture. Art forms promoted by the Chinese authorities before during and after the Cultural Revolution (1966-68) also fall into this category of overtly political public art.

Sometimes, urban art forms such as street murals are created as a protest by minority groups against certain laws or political authority. The cities of Belfast and Los Angeles have witnessed artworks of this type, designed to reinforce a political agenda.

Famous Public Art

One of the most famous pieces of municipal art is The Chicago Picasso, an untitled monumental sculpture by the Spanish master Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). This familiar landmark, dedicated on 15 August 1967, and situated in Daley Plaza in the Chicago Loop, stands 50 feet tall, weighs 162 tons and cost $351,959.17 to install. Picasso himself waived all fees. The sculpture was made by United States Steel Corporation (Gary, Indiana) before being disassembled and transported to its Chicago resting place. The exact subject matter of the sculpture remains unclear.

Pompidou Centre (Paris)

Designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, and built 1971-7, this ultra-modern architectural masterpiece aptly houses the Musee Pompidou, the French museum of modern art. This large free-spanning steel-framed structure is a perfect example of how aesthetic architecture can constitute public art.

Public Graffiti and Street Art

This term, derived from the Italian word 'graffio' meaning, to scratch, refers to illicit 'street art' sprayed or painted on buildings, generally in public urban areas, by freelance 'street artists'. It includes various types such as territorial graffiti, aggressive guerrilla art (now referred to as 'post-graffiti art'), and stencil graffiti. By comparison, the term 'street art' encompasses traditional graffiti imagery, as well as wheatpasting, sticker/street poster art, video projection, and street installations. It is commonly employed to differentiate contemporary public-space artwork from territorial or guerrilla graffiti, and visual vandalism. Neither of these forms of freelance 'artwork' fall within the traditional definition of government sponsored Public Art.

• For more information about community art in Ireland, see: Irish Art: Cork Visual Arts.

• How to Update This Mini Review of Public Art.

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