Chap 11 Sculpture notes

Chapter 11 Sculpture – Installation art
Art 211 Art Appreciation

Installation art - Controversial Works
Public art is at times controversial. Both Tilted Arc and Vietnam Veterans Memorial aroused public opinion in the early 1980s.

With Tilted Arc, the main aspect of the controversy was that it bisected the Federal Plaza, forcing people to walk around the sculpture rather than directly to the building. Other criticisms were that it would be a target for graffiti, rats, and terrorists.

Richard Serra described the work as this: “The viewer becomes aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result from the viewer's movement. Step by step the perception not only of the sculpture but the entire environment changes.”

A public hearing was held in 1985, and 122 people testified in favor of keeping the sculpture while only 58 spoke in favor of removing it. The sculpture was dismantled and removed in 1989.

With the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, much of the controversy arose due to the non-traditional format of the design.
The idea for a memorial came from a Vietnam veteran named Jan Scruggs. After watching the film "The Deer Hunter", he organized a group of veterans to petition the government to fund the first memorial to commemorate the soldiers who were lost in this unpopular war. Congress authorized the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1980, stating that it would be located prominently on the National Mall on two acres of Constitution Gardens. Following a contest involving over 1400 entries, a jury selected the design of Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, who at the time was a 21-year old architectural student at Yale University. The Wall was built in 1982 and immediately drew criticism from various veterans groups. Because of its minimalist design and its use of black granite stone which directly sliced into the landscape, the wall was dubbed by its critics "the black gash of shame" or a "giant tombstone."
In an attempt to appease those who wanted a more heroic and representational memorial, it was decided to add Frederick Hart's Statue of the Three Servicemen to the overall design .in 1984. Nine years later, in 1993, the Vietnam Women's Memorial was added to honor the women who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War.
Despite the original controversy, The Wall is the most beloved of the memorials, and people who come to visit it rarely leave without being touched by it. Many leave mementos of letters, dog tags, flags, and personal possessions of those they knew who died in the Vietnam war. A museum was set up to collect and display these items.

It was described by some as being disrespectful and a disgrace: “I believe that the design selected for the memorial in an open competition is pointedly insulting to the sacrifices made for their country by all Vietnam veterans. By this will we be remembered: a black gash of shame and sorrow, hacked into the national visage that is the Mall.” —Tom Carhart, 1981

Maya Lin described the memorial: “Walking through this park-like area, the memorial appears as a rift in the earth—a long, polished black stone wall, emerging from and receding into the earth. Approaching the memorial, the ground slopes gently downward, and the low walls emerging on either side, growing out of the earth, extend and converge at a point below and ahead. Walking into the grassy site contained by the walls of this memorial, we can barely make out the carved names upon the memorial’s walls. These names, seemingly infinite in number, convey the sense of overwhelming numbers, while unifying these individuals into a whole...” —From Lin’s competition entry, 1981

This public art stands today, and it is the most visited monument in Washington, D.C., today.