Caroline Levine’s The Paradox of Public Art

There are instructions as to what to do. Also, the reading attachment is down below. Please read through everything carefully and double-check everything.

Instructions

Read The Paradox of Public Art by Caroline Levine. Then, respond to the prompts in this quiz.

Below are the response questions that you will find within this quiz.

1. In your opinion, what is one area in which the general public might need a little push from avant-
garde design, art, or ideas? Why does it need a push, and what might that push be?

Your response should be approximately 100 words

2. In your view, was it the right thing to do to remove and therefore destroy Serra’s Tilted Arc? Why or
why not?

Your response should be approximately 150 words.

3. For your final project, will you consider adapting an avant-garde position, style, or topic? In which
ways are you comfortable pushing boundaries or putting forth work that might not be immediately
accepted, and in which ways might you be less comfortable? Are you drawn to work that might
prove difficult, abrasive, or even shocking to an audience? Or would you find it more appropriate to
placate, unite, and sooth your audience?

Your response should be approximately 150 words.

4. Levine claims, somewhat hurriedly, that “Architecture is the shaping of space for use. Thus it can
be evaluated according to how well it performs its tasks […] By contrast, since the emergence of the
avant-garde, art is defined by the fact that it serves no immediate practical purpose […] Art is
therefore evaluated by strictly non-utilitarian criteria: its creative energy, its sensuous appeal, its
potential to disrupt established norms and habits.”

Do you view this definition of Architecture as both complete and correct? Why or why not, how or
how not? Do you agree with Levine’s contrast of this definition of architecture with this definition of
art? Why or why not?

Your response should be approximately 200

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

https://channel.louisiana.dk/video/richard-serra-porten-i-slugten

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