Roberta Smith's Sunday NYT piece, arguing that public art is enjoying a renaissance, puzzled Artsjournal's Tyler Green: "[Jeff Koons's] Balloon Dog (Yellow) couldn't be any further from public: It's owned by hedge fund-enabled impresario Steven Cohen. It is on temporary loan to the Met, where it sits stands on the roof."
What's got me scratching my skin is that Smith never mentions development in her analysis of trends in public art. Public sculpture was as dead as a doornail in the 1960s and 70s—but so were the cities where public sculpture is commissioned and seen. Can Smith be so sure that formal developments best explain why artists are working with cities more often now than they were then? What about why cities are more open to working with artists?
Posted by Kriston at August 26, 2008 2:46 PM