What is
public art?
Jeff Koons: Puppy (1992-95) (courtesy Guggenheim Museum Bilbao / © Jeff Koons)
Maybe public art makes most of us think of a sculpture on a plinth? But in fact it can be anything – from beer mats to festivals; from train tickets to tower blocks.
These objects can have very powerful meanings for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps it's because of what they make us remember or what they seem to express. Art can make an empty space seem like a significant place. It can celebrate someone or something, or it can commemorate. It can express any kind of feeling or idea.
Even bigger than these kinds of sculptures, and often in hard-to-reach or rural areas, is land art.
But public art can be much more than a permanent, solid sculpture. It can be:
- a short-lived object
- a one-off event that you could take part in by making something yourself or even performing (this can have just as much long-lasting meaning as a permanent object)
- an intervention by an artist that could be brief or long-term
- an artist's performance.
Public art can be any kind of art in a public space, outside of a gallery. A public space could be a geographical space – urban or rural. It could be a city square, park or street. It could be every street in an area, every tree in a park, the banks of a river, every bus shelter in a town or every bus ticket.
A public space can also be a cultural space: a social or religious group, a sports team or a political party. And public art can also happen in quite private spaces, like a tower block, a school or a hospital.
Go to our gallery to be inspired by the spectrum of what is public art today.
What is art for?: The curator Isabelle Vasseur, who was on the selection panel for the Big Art Project, discusses the purposes of visual art and why art may surprise, shock, or simply mystify us at first viewing.
