What is Public Art? Public Art is part of our history and our culture. It is artwork that has been commissioned and designed for the general public to be able to access, not necessarily meaning it is placed outdoors but accessible for everyone. It is used to transform or improve the environment specifically commissioned for the community, with its surroundings almost becoming part of the artwork itself. Some pieces are made to dominate an environment whereas others are made to blend in. There are many factors that artists creating public art have to take in to account such as where it is going to be placed, if it is going to be outside then they need to take in to account the weather conditions and the material they will be using. They also need to figure out how much space they have so they can know the height and width of the sculpture. Finally, they need to know who their audience is and whether there is a specific target audience. Public Art comes in a variety of different forms and shapes. Examples of this include decorative art, sculpture, photography, architecture, moving images and events. You can find public art anywhere in the public domain. Public art also very much focusses on the individuality and the talent of the artist and how they can either improve the space they are given or even redevelop it giving it a new meaning. Also, community buildings such as schools, shopping centres, hospitals and sports complexes can all accommodate public art such as textiles and furnishings. You can find it permanently integrated in to the rural environment on large scales. However, some of these pieces of Public Art are unfortunately damaged or stolen and just left with elements.
Who is Public Art for? Public art is usually sponsored by a variety of different public agencies. The word ‘Public’ is very much associated with the lower/working class society e.g. public schools, public housing and public transport. Whereas the word ‘private’ is associated with the more privileged and upper class e.g. private schools and private transport. Public Art, however, is for anyone. It causes controversy due to the difference of people’s opinions on the work. Having a variety of different opinions is inevitable and also healthy, the art is getting noticed and appreciated rather than being ignored.
What is Art for? As the society we live in evolves objects such as Public art carry significant meanings or messages and are usually used to celebrate either a person or an event, or commemorate a certain date or event. Some have religious or social significance and isn’t necessarily appealing to all the community, again, causing controversy. Sculptures and other landmarks provide tourists with areas of cultural interests as many have been there for centuries. An example of this is the Uffington White horse in Wiltshire, this horse has mysterious meaning and transformed an ordinary space into something meaningful.
Artists try to give meaning to certain spaces by the use of imagery, showing us different emotions and allowing us to alter our perception of what we may feel is unimportant to us. When an artist is commissioned to make a piece of Public Art they try to surprise the public and create something the public have never seen before. At first it often gets criticized only till later when it begins to be appreciated and loved for what it is. We all interpret art in different ways. Antony Garmley’s ‘Angel of the North’ as originally attacked and frowned upon, however, it is now loved by people who first hated it.
Swindon Borough Councils Policy. Since 1988 Swindon Borough Council have been commissioning public art all over the area including the town centre, hospitals, residential areas, the Museum of the Great Western Railway and many others. The Councils public Art policy used a principle called ‘Percent for Art’ – this policy was used to be able to give recognition to the artists and how they can enhance and recreate empty spaces in the public domain. By creating this policy it allowed outside artists and local artists to engage in making art for the community and maximising opportunities for them as artists. ‘Percent for Art’ was introduced by the Arts Council of England in 1988 and is now established in more than 200 local authorities, development corporations and National trusts, in a variety of towns and cities where normal practice is for at least 1% of the capital costs to be allocated for public art. Robert Carnwath, QC, on behalf of the Arts Council of England when advocated for Percent for Art being adopted by local authorities stated “The local planning authority
will, in appropriate cases, encourage new works of art as part of schemes of development and, in determining applications for planning permission, will have regarded to the contribution made by such art works to the appearance of the scheme and to the amenities of the area” (Carnwath R 2004 as citied by Carrington C 2004).
The idea of this policy allows and encourages developers to allocate a percentage of the capital costs of any new architecture, refurbishment and landscaping scheme towards the production of works of public art. The Wiltshire town of Swindon is surrounded in prehistory from the Uffington White Horse to the Avebury circle. The Old Town has origins of a Roman Village, later becoming the home of the famous Great Western Railways and most recently the car industry. The sculptures around the town draw mainly on the heritage of the town and the unique features of the town. John Clinch was born in Folkstone, Kent studying Fine Art at Kingston School of Art in 1951-1955, and then moved on to study Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, 1957-1961. Clinch was very much described as a reserved and calm man. In his early career he trained to be an accountant in London, which is when he discovered his love and talent for Art. Contemporaries from his time at Kingston and Royal College of Art remember his lyrical skill in modelling and drawing. Following this, he had the opportunity to travel round France and Italy. On his return to England he took up part time teaching at places such as Camberwell and Colchester. He carried on teaching around Art schools and also exhibiting his work widely around Europe.
There are a variety of artworks situated around the town such as: Diana Dors (John Clinch, 1991) – Shaw Ridge, Leisure Park. The Diana Dors statue was created in 1991 by John Clinch and it depicts the elegant film star Diana Dors who was born in Swindon in 1931. The statue is made out of bronze allowing the artist to create detail and personal characteristics. Bronze can be cast in to shapes that require less structural support than materials such as marble or stone. The properties of bronze also made the sculpture expand whilst cooling.
The Blondins (John Clinch). This statue was created from the remaining pieces of metal from the Great Western Railway works in Swindon. John Clinch was commissioned to create the statue in the 1980’s by the current council. For many years the sculpture stood in Wharf Green, in the seating area in the Brunel Centre, in Swindon. However, in 2005 the statue was badly vandalised and was restored by local artist Tim Carroll. It was also moved to a new location in St. Marks Park, Gorsehill. It is now currently a feature in a children’s playground. The Blondins were known for performing at circuses around Swindon in the 1920’s. The statue was designed to symbolise the gathering of people for events such as festivals and fairs.
John Clinch ‘His wish you were here’ 1983.
This is a colourful sculpture by clinch featuring holiday makers by the seaside. It shows a man in a vest with a beer can clenched in his arm, whilst a women is leaning over the barrier trying to get someone’s attention and a younger girl with a cap and yellow t shirt on pointing at something in the distance.
John Clinch ‘People like us’. 1993. This bronze cast sculpture depicts a young couple and their dog. The sculpture is to celebrate the working people in Cardiff docks during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The left arm of the women is pointing over across the water to almost suggest that she is thinking about the possibilities for the future their life.
The Golden Lion.
The Golden Lion can be found down Canal walk in the heart of Swindon Town centre. The Lion is made out of cement and is a replica of the Lion that stood on the Golden Lion pub on the canal and was recreated by local sculptures. It was made in 1977 the year of the Queens silver jubilee. There is also a Golden Lion Bridge mural. Swindon muralist and artrist Ken white painted this mural on the side of a house by the Whale Bridge roundabout, on a job creation programme in 1976.
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The Watchers (Carleton Attwood, 1982). Toothill Village Centre. This sculpture is one of the Carleton’s last works and was mainly completed by sculptor Pat Elmore. The sculpture was cast in Ferro-concentrate at Swindon’s town hall studios, it represents the new community of Swindon and was offered as a gift to the residents of Toothill.
Henry Moore. Henry Moore (1891-1986) is a very well-known British sculptor of the 20th century by receiving world-wide fame through many of his popular commissions. Moore’s work became known as ‘modern art’ and he was celebrated by the public for his work. Due to Moore’s connection with a man called Jacob Epstein who is an American-born British sculptor who helped to pioneer modern sculpture, Moore was given the opportunity to put his work into the Public realm. Henry Moore was born in Castleford in Yorkshire, he was the seventh of eight children. It is known that Henry wanted to be a sculptor from the early age of eleven after hearing stories about the very famous and talented Michelangelo at Sunday school. During the First World War Moore served in France in the Civil Service Regiment. He was unfortunately a victim within a gas attack in 1917 leading him to have to leave in 1919 and was awarded a veterans grant to study. Moore started by training to be a teacher before moving on to artworks and sculptures studying at Leeds School of Art, where he met Dame Barbara Hepworth. In 1921, Moore then gained a scholarship to study at Royal College of Arts in London where he began to specialise and research pre-Columbian, African and oceanic sculptures. Moore’s education in sculpture and art allowed him to practice classical techniques such as clay and plaster. He used these mediums on a large scale using classical plaster cast for his sculptures. However, Moore started to believe that these methods were outdated and decided to use a method called “direct carving” which is using traditional materials such as wood and stone. He wanted to make his artwork look unfinished, which is definitely identifiable with the use of the claw chisel marks left visible on his sculptures, which very much contrasted with the smoothness of the skin in traditional classical sculptures. He also believed that once you picked a certain medium such as stone to work in, that the stone came much more important than what the stone was actually supposed to depict.
Moore was most known due to how he understood art in its most uncomplicated and simple form. He was influenced by many artists before him, allowing him to gain inspiration and development as a sculptor. He was very much influenced by European Modernists such as Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Hans Arp who all added to Moore’s manipulated expressions of the human form in an abstract approach. Moore was also very much influenced by a movement called Constructivism, this is a movement where mechanical objects are combined into abstract mobile forms. He was also very influenced by Surrealism, this is a style that uses visual imagery from the subconscious mind to create art without the intention of logical comprehensibility. These movements and artists made him appreciate the abstract form and allowed him to explore the human figure and its essential fragmented parts. Moore’s earlier works were mainly front facing unlike his later work where he began to explore different angles and how the viewer could perceive the sculpture. It is suggested that his earlier works are very much influenced by Egyptian sculptures. After exploring different angles, he was very interested in moving on to three-dimensional models which the public would be able to see from whatever angle they wanted to. Moore wanted to do this because he wanted the viewers to be able to fully understand the piece of art and view it from all possible angles. He started to look at more primitive art for inspiration for his own work, and started to look at reclining figures from Mexican cultures, he focused on the Aztec reclining figures which signify and relate to the War Chacmool 900-1000AD, although this sculpture was made for sacrificial rituals it doesn’t actually show any emotion or brutality associated with it. Moore very much focused on this source for his sculpture of the reclining women. His mother and child figures displayed something very powerful, he recreated it over and over again tackling many problems. He eventually refined the sculptures to their abstract forms to emulate the human bond that a mother and her child would usually have. This figure was found at the Temple of the warriors and has been carved from a single block of Pleistocene lime-stone. The figure represents a human figure reclined backwards with their head facing 90 degrees from the front. The figure is supporting itself by leaning on their elbows with a disk upon its stomach, which could suggest that they are sacrificing something to the gods. As you can see the figures legs are bent, also the torso of the figure is a bird wing shield. Also, there are fragments of this
figure which suggest that at one point the whole sculpture was covered in paint. Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure 1929 Henry more was very talented in how he was able to manipulate stone. The ‘Reclining figure’ is made from a stone called Brown Horton which is mainly sourced from quarries in North West of Oxfordshire. Instance stone has a very low tensile strength so it isn’t strong enough and could very easily be broken.
“It is the first figure I did in Brown Horton stone in 1929 influenced by the Mexican Sculpture, particularly by the Chac-Mool figure. I realised now where the influence was, but it is very different. Except for the turn of the head, the figure is a symmetrical figure of which both sides are the same, the two legs are exactly in the same position, where in my Horton stone figure there is a big difference, a big change and it also began to have something that my sculpture until then hadn’t had, it began to have forms which really existed and worked against each other and with each other rather than one solid mass that was all crushed and stuck together. This had a freedom and yet kept stormy strength and I knew when I finished it that it was the best sculpture I had done up to then” Henry Moore quoted in lonel Jlanou, Henry Moore, translated by Geoggry Skelding, Arted, Paris, pp.28-9
Henry Moore’s Old Flo.
Old Flo by Henry Moore is an abstract sculpture that has links to the female human form. As you can see in the images, the forms are very out of proportion as you can see the head is significantly smaller than the rest of the body. The arms of the figure are incredibly slim in proportion to the body and in contrast to this both of the legs are quite extensive in comparison. Also, there is very little expression or characteristics of the sculpture as there is no expression or detail on the face. The modelling of the sculpture has allowed the sculptor to create smoother shapes for the arms and legs, the clothing the sculpture is wearing drapes just over the knees,
but has no obvious neck line. The torso of the figure faces forward whereas the head and feet are set on an angle apart from each other. Moore most likely chose bronze to build the sculpture due to its high tensile strength allows an open format, it is also very durable so is very helpful as it is outside.
Who owns Old Flo? Henry Moore first wanted Old Flo to be shown for the public, however, Tower Hamlets Council planned to sell the sculpture to raise money for its budget deficit. Old Flo was made in link to the disaster that happened on Wednesday 3rd March 1943 “The Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster”. 173 people died in the bomb shelter due to people getting crushed. One women with a child slipped on a step, and others began to follow and also fall. It was known as the most deadly civilian incident of World War 2. It is suggested that Old Flo represents the strong women of World War 2 waiting in Bomb shelters. At first, the sculpture was given as a gift to the Stifford Estate in East London, but since then has been on a loan to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for the past 16 years. However, in 2012 Mayor Lutfur Rahman made a decision that many disagreed with, to sell Old Flo to raise funds for the Council. As he stated “It is with considerable regret that I make this decision but I have a duty to ensure residents do not suffer the brunt of the horrendous cuts being imposed on us” – Lurfur Rahman, Mayor of Tower Hamlets. However, due to many disagreeing with Lurfur Rahman the sale of Old Flo has been delayed. The London Borough of Bromley has written to the Tower Hamlets explaining how they own it, as it was only on loan to Yorkshire. It is said that the sculpture remained the property of GLC until its dissolution in 1985 and was then transferred to Bromley, and currently the borough is currently in a legal battle with Bromley Council over who owns the sculpture.
“This sculpture must remain in public ownership which is line with the original principles of Henry Moore himself.” “ The idea that selling this internationally recognised sculpture will somehow tackle
the financial situation facing Tower Hamlets is flawed. Local authorities need to face financial reality and look at the longer term challenges.” The artist Bob and Roberta Smith, also known as Patrick Bill and other artists and friends led a flash mob-style protest in Tower Hamlets council headquarters on the 12th November 2012. The campaign was all about being against selling Old Flo, which more sold to Tower Hamlets in 1962 for £7400. Due to a demolition happening in the housing estate where it was placed, it was moved to Yorkshire to stop it getting vandalised. The photos show Jessica Voorsanger who is an American performance artist who is dressed as Henry Moore on the right. All the other protestors are dressed in green to copy Old Flo, whilst posing with banners exclaiming Old Flo is “NOT FOR SALE”.
“Hitler destroyed the East End, Henry Moore, with others, rebuilt it and now a council who seem ignorant of the areas less recent past is selling off its principle monument to peace. For me it is like smashing up a war memorial. Moore’s shelter drawings were the inspiration for this period of his work. It is terrible that the borough where scores of people died during the war in a tube station air raid shelter in Bethnal Green does not have the imagination to see how wonderful Old Flo is a symbol of our humanity. Old Flo is an East End survivor. She is a generous and defiant image. She is so clearly drawn from Moore’s war artist work. Sitting on her plinth I imagine her to be taking air after some horrible near suffocation. The Major of Tower Hamlets should take a trip to Harlow and witness how amazing this kind of sculpture is not only for its formal values but for what it represents. Artists like Liz Frink, and Barbara Hepworth wanted their art in Public spaces because in the past war era people equated public space with freedom. It was in that era that the NHS was conceived and our institutions were made meritocratic and democratic. In 2010
Chris Stevens at Tate Britain curated a great show looking at Moore’s relationship with past war culture. My god that was some history lesson but obviously one which councillors of Tower Hamlets did not heed or even care about” – Bob and Roberta Smith.
Barbara Hepworth. Barbara Hepworth was born in Yorkshire, she loved the nature and the undulating hills, and it gave her inspiration for her natural forms which were consistent throughout all her works. Hepworth was always very keen on her sculptures being placed in the public open air, because she believed they were able to breathe out here and be animated and portrayed in different ways from different viewpoints and the changing of daylight and weather. Very similar to Moore, she also created shapes by using movement, tone, colours and negative space. She began by travelling to Siena, Florence, Spain and Italy to study painting. Once she was in Italy she became very drawn to direct carving. In 1930, she married an abstract painter Ben Nicholson, and they travelled to Paris and met artists such as Pablo Picasso, Hans Herp and Constantine Brancusi. From then, she was drawn to the modernist movement, very much like Moore. Her public sculptures can be viewed all over the World.
“You can climb thorugh the Divided Circle – you don’t need to do it physically to experience it”. -Barbara Hepworth. One of Hepworth’s works was stolen from Dulwich Park, suspected to be taken by scrap metal thieves in the South London area. This sculpture was called “Two Forms” also known as the Divided Circle, was cut from its plinth overnight. The sculpture was made out of two vertical bronze semi circles which formed an overall broken circle that was 6ft 7in tall. All three elements of the sculpture are hollow and were cast in London by a man called Morris Singer. The sculpture had been placed in the park since 1970, and was considered one of Britain’s most recognisable works. It was one of Hepworth’s late works as it was made only 5 years before her passing away in 1975. Hepworth wanted the viewer’s body to be engaged within her work.
The History of Art Paper.
24th September 2015.
WILL WE BE SAYING GOOD BYE TO OLD FLO? Is Public Art something that the working class can unfortunately no longer afford? The Mayor of the London borough of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman is currently making the decision on whether the beautiful work of Art known as Old Flo will be up for sale due to financial problems within the Borough.
value. What the sculpture should show to the people of Tower Hamlets is the “belief that everyone, whatever their background, should have access to works of art of the highest quality”.
He has already declared that his intentions are to sell the sculpture due to the deficit within the council, but he knows he will have to consider the views of the council’s overview. Henry Moore’s Old Flo which is also known as the “Draped Seated Women” is to sell to the highest bidder, to fill the financial problems by government spending cuts. Councillor Shahed Ali earlier told the BBC that it is an “uninsurable” sculpture, especially at a time like today when large bronze sculptures can sometimes be at risk of theft. He went on to state that “we’d love to keep it in the borough” but there are many issues with keeping it.
When Old Flo was first placed at Tower Hamlets Moore exclaimed that he was “delighted” that his sculpture would be the centre piece of the estate. Boyle says that “It represents everything I believe in”. The Draped Seated Women is showing that nothing was too good for ordinary people. To follow through with this and sell the sculpture would not only be “a betrayal of working class heritage” states Rushanara Ali but also betraying Moore’s generosity with the sculpture. Would this not make people wonder if they should ever donate or offer anything to a local authority again if this is to happen?
At this current time, with many cuts taking place in this poor area, there is the argument that the money could be spent elsewhere on something much more useful to the people of Tower Hamlets. It is said that it could cut off all cultural funding’s completely. This proposal has infuriated many, one of those being Henry Moore’s daughter Mary, Danny Boyle who is the hero of the Olympic Opening ceremony, and also MP Rushanara Ali. In a letter that was sent to the Observer today, it states that it “goes against the spirit” of artist Henry Moore, who sent it to the London County Council at a price of only £6,000 – far below its