The Ascendency of Modern Public Sculpture in America

The dissertation explores the origins of modern public sculpture and seeks to trace historically its emergence in America following the Second World War. The study begins by examining academic public art, typified by the sculptural scheme at Rockefeller Center of the 1930's and the beaux-arts statuary executed after World War II for the American military cemeteries overseas. The opening chapter also surveys federal arts policy during the Truman and Eisenhower years, the movement among art advocates to increase the government's involvement, and the political activities of the coalition against modern art. The next section considers the desire of modern artists in Europe to create public art before World War II and introduces the most influential post-war European precedents, including, the Unknown Political Prisoner competition of 1953, sculptures by Zadkine and Gabo in Rotterdam, and the art program for Unesco Headquarters in Paris. The remaining four chapters analyze how and why modern public sculpture came to be commissioned nationwide. "Public Art for Private Purposes" follows the initial use of modern sculpture after the war by a small number of architects to when clients, notably corporations, themselves initiated such commissions by the late 1960's. "Municipal Commissions" examines the histories of three prominent public sculptures that became recognized symbols of their cities (Saarinen's Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the Picasso in Chicago, and Toronto's Archer by Henry Moore) and subsequently considers Seattle's program to commission more modest works spread throughout the city. The chapter on the National Endowment for the Arts traces through the Kennedy and Johnson years the increasing recognition of the arts--particularly modern art--in the national interest and reconstructs the early history of the NEA's Works of Art in Public Places program, inaugurated by Alexander Calder's La Grande Vitesse in Grand Rapids (1969). Finally, the history of federal "art in architecture" policy is reviewed in the section on the General Services Administration, whose acquisition of Calder's Flamingo for the Chicago Federal Center led to a parade for the artist and the declaration of "Alexander Calder Day" in Chicago (25 October 1974), an indication that by this time modern public sculpture had become firmly established in America.