Page 123 - David Bermant Foundation

122SucceSSful Public Art: iS it PoSSible?By David W. Bermant 1987I have extensive experience with every aspect of placing art in public places. Here I present a sampling in words and pictures of the more than one hundred “objects” I am responsible for in certain public areas of our country.Many of them either move or have movement as their subject matter. Therefore, be aware that a photograph of a moving object rarely does justice to that object, and aesthetic objects especially suffer grievously—sometimes fatally—by being frozen by a camera.At the Port Authority Bus Terminal, 42nd Street and 8th Avenue in New York City, artist George Rhoadshas located his “42nd Street Ballroom.” His works are easily the most popular artwork in each public area, whether shopping center, airport, or bus terminal. Since they are accessible (an art term meaning “easily understood”) to anyone of any age, group, race, or economic class, they are the first art objects I introduce into my shopping centers. They bring smiles to anyone capable of smiling. Is bringing a smile to one’s facein this complicated and anxiety–ridden world an unworthy objective of a fine art piece?At Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, James Seawright has installed a much expanded versionof his “Mirror I.” This is an array of 121 mirror- faced blocks six feet by six feet. The faces of the blocks are inclined at the precise angles necessary to direct all the mirror faces to a focal point eight feet in front of the center of the array.Also at Logan are two new pieces by George Rhoads similar to, but different from, the Bus Terminal piece in New York City. I believe Rhoads is possibly the most underrated (in the art establishment) artist- genius in the United States today.The hostility of the American public to the usualart forms foisted upon it in its public spaces is well documented, highlighted by the confrontation over Richard Serra’s “Tilted Arc” sculpture at the Federal Building in New York City. That this controversy will go on seems likely.Recent articles appearing in Stroll magazine(a publication of Creative Time, a public art organization) indicated that the experts remainPublic Art