BOOK REVIEW
ANNA
MUESSIC /JANE
DURRELL
DeOverkant ARTS
japunuMOQ
OF DEMOCRACY ART, P U B L I C C U L T U R E , A N D T H E STATE
DEN HAAG SCULPTUUR 07
T H E ARTS O F D E M O C R A C Y : Art, Public Culture, and the State
D E O V E R K A N T / D O W N U N D E R : Den Haag Sculptuur 0 7
Casey Nelson Blake, editor Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007 361 pages, $49.95 (cloth)
Marie Jeanne de Rooij, editor and curator Rotterdam: Veenman, 2007 184 pages, € 2 3 . 5 4 (paperback)
Less an argument than a story, The Arts of Democracy is a winding conversation about the shifting nature of arts and public culture in the last century. Casey Nelson Blake has compiled a book that charts the dynamic relationships between artist, citizen, and state by tracing a constellation of defining moments in American art. He does an expert job of describing the shift from a public cultural sphere defined by early popular commercial artists, to the mid-century rise of high modernism and the strengthened role of the federal government, which finally gave way to the disintegration of free, artistic civic space. Accessible to a range of professions and disciplines, the book is divided into three themed sections and contains a series of 12 critical, tightly focused essays from experts in their fields, including pieces on public speech on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.; art and politics in an age of postmodernism; and cultural propaganda tours during the Cold War. One of the highlights of the collection is an essay by Donna M. Binkiewicz on the early years of the National Endowment for the Arts, which debunks the widespread assumption that the program was a radical supporter of avant-garde artists. Through rigorous original research, Binkiewicz shows how the influence of Cold War attitudes and the New York City arts elite on its Visual Arts program resulted in overwhelming support for established, politically safe modernist styles like abstract expressionism, color field paintings, and abstract sculpture, in neglect of popular movements such as pop, Chicano/a, feminist, and performance art. A broad range of readers will find this book stimulating for its important questions about how the state should operate in supporting the free growth of public culture, the effect of propaganda on the arts in wartime, and the perennial tension between democratic access to culture and artistic excellence. It gives arts professionals a nuanced history of the field, and other interested parties a cross section of one of the most important of today's conversations in the study of art and public space.
If Down Under sometimes seems over-the-top, perhaps you had to be there. But being there, judging from the jubilee catalogue of The Hague Sculpture 2007, must have been a trip and a half. This collaborative exhibition by nearly 40 artists from Australia and the Netherlands was strung along the city's Lange Voorout (Limewood Lane), and served as the tenth edition of a summer show that began in 1998 celebrating The Hague's 750th anniversary. The outdoor sculpture display draws 200,000 visitors annually and has become more ambitious every year. This catalogue records 2007's celebration of a long if tenuous relationship between the Netherlands and Australia in what The Hague Sculpture Director Maya MeijerBergmans terms "a teasing exposition of Australian artists." Teasing in that one wants to see more? Seems likely. Among the startling sights: John Kelly's Cow up a Tree, in which a large, black-and-white block of stylized cow is indeed up a tree; Patricia Piccinini's oddly touching and thought-provoking anthropomorphic motor scooters; and Koen Wastijn's blazingly red billboard proclaiming "Kangaroos are Airlines." Down Under is more than an exhibition catalogue. In a snappy layout, the book delineates previous shows and includes essays on the modern flowering of Aboriginal art as well as the diversity of contemporary Australian art. Because it apparently went to press before full installation, Australian artist Callum Morton is represented only by letters about A Work in Progress, and the Netherlands' Harmen de Hoop entry notes that his work "has not yet been made ... even if it had been made, it is unclear whether it would actually be 'seen' as a work of art," as he places ready-mades in public space, noticed—if at all—by regulars to the area. Both these artists are well served by essays concerning their work, however; indeed, the essays on each artist, written by Marie Jeanne de Rooij, are useful and perceptive. Although snappy, the layout is sometimes hard to navigate, complicated by text appearing in both Dutch and English (in shaky translation). But as a window on lively creative endeavor by sculptors in two widely placed spots on our constantly shrinking globe, it functions perfectly.
ANNA MUESSIG is a long-time public art enthusiast and contributor to Public Art Review. She currently works at the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York City.
JANE DURRELL writes on the visual arts and on travel for a variety of publications.