Public Sculpture

The Assignment:
Find a work of public sculpture of your choosing. This should NOT be a work in a museum, but a work that is located in a public site like a park or school, or outside of a museum, corporate office, or government building. If you are looking for ideas, search online for public art in New Jersey (https://www.publicartarchive.org/newjerseypublicart/) and look at some of the images (or feel to look at works out-of-state out of the country, if you prefer). You can choose something youve seen before, or something youd like to visit one day, when the world opens up again. Once you select a work, you must be sure you can find good online pictures of the sculpture and its environment. Do the necessary detective work to identify it (artist, title, date).

For your essay, I need the following:

The formal characteristics of the work, considering what weve covered in Chapters 3-7, as well as Chapter 12 pay special attention to issues of proportion and scale, space, line, texture, and balance. But your focus will depend on the object your choose- your sculpture may have an interest in color, repetition, etc. Think about viewpoint as well.
The specific characteristics of the work as it relates to the medium of sculpture. Is the work subtractive or additive? Is it relief or in-the-round? What is the specific medium used, and how does that medium affect the choices of the artist?
The way the work relates to its environment, both visually and symbolically. In terms of the visual, think about how it is situated. Is it elevated above its setting? Does it relate to a building or other
architectural setting? Does it blend with its environment or stand in conflict with it? In terms of the symbolic, consider the meaning of the work.

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