Caroline Levine's The Paradox of Public Art

RICHARD SERRA’S TILTED ARC

PREPPING TO READ CAROLINE LEVINE’S THE PARADOX OF PUBLIC ART - Serra’s background and previous works

- Interpretations of Tilted Arc

- The Avant-garde

- “And then it switched”

- Father worked in a shipyard near San Fancisco

- He watched a large ship transform from a massive hunk of metal into a buoyant, “weightless” object when placed in the water.

- “All the raw material that I needed is contained in the reserve of this memory”

- Contingency

- Site specificity

- Moving away from “pure” sculpture, out of Modernism

- We will deal with this thread in a bit

- Essentially, to Serra, art is not the object itself. At least not ONLY the object.

- This was highly contrary to prevailing attitudes at the time

- Serra created an entire series of works based on transitive verbs (actions), the list itself is also a work

RICHARD SERRA

Guernica, Pabolo Picasso, 1937

- Contingency

- If we take Guernica and hang it in France, in LA, in Texas, in Melbourne, is it still the same?

- If we hang it in a living room or a museum is it still the same?

RICHARD SERRA

One Ton Prop (House of Cards), 1969

Splashing, 1968

2-2-1: To Dickie and Tina, 1969, 1994

Trip Hammer, 1988

- Contingency

- If we take One Ton Prop and assemble it in a shipyard or manufacturing plant, is it art? Or is it an OSHAA violation?

RICHARD SERRA

HTTPS://CHANNEL.LOUISIANA.DK/VIDEO/RICHARD- SERRA-PORTEN-I-SLUGTEN

- Interpretations vary

- Serra would likely prefer an experiential interpretation:

- The work is about your movement through space and how the work mediates your experience of the space; your experience of the object is contingent

- An antimonumental interpretation

- Unlike Michelangelo’s David, Tilted Arc is meant to change over time/space and be interpreted and reinterpreted by the viewer

- Also unlike David, it is not an object around which we can all stand (literally and figuratively)

- Tilted Arc is a statement that monumentality is no longer possible. We are divided by such static, narrowly interpreted works instead of united by them.

- The precariousness of the prop = our society: not a demonstration of wealth and power, but a coalition, an interdependence

- The democracy of Serra’s material

TILTED ARC

Tilted Arc, 1981

Tilted Arc, 1981

Tilted Arc, 1981

Tilted Arc, 1981

Tilted Arc, 1981

Tilted Arc, 1981

Tilted Arc, 1981

- This idea rose alongside Modernism, but persisted as artists (such as Serra) challenged other modernist ideas

- Conceptions of the/an Avant-garde vary over time and from person to person

- Various works can be more or less provocative, aggressive, or purposefully abrasive

- As you read/watch, compare the reactions to Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Serra’s Tilted Arc. Both could be considered Avant-garde works.

- As she is writing about Tilted Arc, Levine generally does not paint the Avant-garde in a positive light

THE AVANT-GARDE

- Levine spends much of the article borderline mocking the idea of an Avant-garde

- Note the sarcastic tone, disbelief, lack of sincerity

- This disingenuous analysis somewhat undermines the argument for an Avant-garde

AND THEN IT SWITCHED

- Until the last few paragraphs completely reverse course!

- This makes it difficult to decipher Levine’s true position

- Also note that her position may be not a traditional for/against

AND THEN IT SWITCHED

- Who is the “public” in public art? In public sites of memory (such as monuments, memorials, etc.)?

- See if you can identify the ways in which description, interpretation, evaluation, or theorization are deployed in the article

- By the author

- By defenders of Serra’s work

- By detractors of Serra’s work

- You don’t need to know specifically who or how many people attacked/defended the work

- Knowing major groups will suffice

- Note how difficult it is to define “the public,” to count them, to determine who’s opinion matters in the end

THE PARADOX OF PUBLIC ART

- Levine’s interpretation of Tilted Arc as disruptor, critique of the public space around the work

- Avant-garde bringing challenging ideas to a public that has not volunteered for them

- Vs “filtering”

- Vs information today (social media, “bubbles”, etc.)

- Try to understand the main point from every paragraph

- Make note of things that don’t make sense:

- References

- Terms

- Arguments/ideas

- Levine’s statement about architecture and functionality

- Is this correct in your eyes?

THE PARADOX OF PUBLIC ART