Jaws

This photo, which I took in Pittsfield, MA and posted last year, pretty much sums up how I feel about public art. Not that public art can’t be good, but that it rarely is, because too much rote thinking is involved on the part of the artists, as well as those who commission it. Artists make art that looks like what they think public art—especially sculpture—should look like, and selection committees select it, without a lot of thought to site or placement. It’s hard to compete with nature—usually the environment would look a whole lot better without it (although I’m a big fan of her paintings, the pile of rust by Rebecca Horn that despoils Barcelona’s beautiful beach is a perfect example, and the Frank Gehry fish that lurks nearby, isn't much better).

I was back in Pittsfield today, at the Berkshire Medical Center (for an MRI on my foot which, of course, was completely cured by the fact that I was going for an MRI—just the way a snuffly, crying baby turns into a smiling picture of health the minute you enter the pediatrician’s office) where this sculpture caught my attention. Although I’d go for something a little more comforting and calming for a medical center—incorporating a water feature perhaps, or vegetation (it would be a great place for some surprise topiary)—the sculpture itself is not so bad, and its sleek lines and mirrored surface contrast nicely with the traditional architecture of the building behind it. But what’s with the sign at the bottom? What’s the point of installing something if you’re going to overwhelm any redeeming qualities it might have with a tacky sign? Who’s thinking here?

So I’m driving home, ranting to myself about how I’ll gladly add public sculpture to the list of things (museum wall text, artists statements, children’s music) that I plan to outlaw when king, when I see this—unmarked, unattributed, and perfectly at home in its environment—and am reminded, as with the Kinderhook snow sculpture I came across last winter, that the human artistic impulse has a place outside after all, just best, perhaps, when it’s not institutionalized.

But let's be positive. Send me examples of public art you think works. Or even better, we could compile a best and worst list.