ORO Editions

Controversy

Art is an activity of change, of disorientation and shift, of violent discontinuity, of the willingness for confusion even in the service of discovering new perceptual modes. 34

— Robert Morris

The more controversy there is at the time [the art] is created by a tried-and-true artist, the more chance there is that it is a significant statement. 35

— Robert Buck

The artist is frequently at conflict with the status quo. He takes us out of the realm of the ordinary, He captures our imagination. He stretches our minds. He changes the way we see the world. Art opens our eyes: it offers a new perspective and makes us turn an idea, a thought, and sometimes even a fact over and over until we see it in a new light with new eyes. 36

— Joan Mondale

Public art is a venerable, if not always venerated art form. It is also vulnerable. Its long and honorable history includes unremitting controversy, spectacular and enduring art, bad and banal art, and significantly, many unrealized superior proposals. Dialogue and debate are positive and essential aspects of the public art process. Whether addressing specific content, chosen medium, celebrity of the artist, or politics, controversy engages people, to take notice, criticize, love, or hate an intervention in the spaces of their lives. Whether based on aesthetic preferences, the work’s appropriateness to the site, or cultural identity, differing opinions are evidence that an artist has touched their audience. Unmitigated approval is not the measure of a work’s success long term.

Robert Irwin has said that one primary intention of art is “to make people see a bit more tomorrow than they saw today.” 37 In that regard, dialectical controversy is a measure of its reach. Can we shy away from controversy sponsored by the creation and placement of public art? Or conversely, should we encourage it?

Suppressing controversy or denying its positive impact on the public art process opens the door to banal and mediocre art. Among the most controversial works of art are those that break from traditional modes and explore new and unfamiliar ideas. They may not be universally accessible, challenging the general public as well as art critics and historians. Critic Arthur Danto has said: “It is the preemption of public spaces by an art that is indifferent, if not hostile, to human needs that has aroused such partisan

Agnes Denes Model for Probability Pyramid – Study for Crystal Pyramid

1976–2019

The Shed, New York, NY

Page 78

Auguste Rodin

The Burghers of Calais

1889 (cast 1908)

Victoria Tower Gardens, London, UK

Page 80

I.M. Pei

The Louvre Pyramid

1988