In "Casting aspersions on state of the art" in the Sydney Morning Herald, 8th Dec 2012, Steve Dow asked should public sculpture be a monument to patriotism, to good artistic taste, or humbly aim to keep the public happy? The first response came from sculptor Ron Robertson-Swann, now the head of sculpture at Sydney's National Art School. His own abstract minimalist sculpture Vault was placed in Melbourne's City Square in 1980, and after pitting conservative detractors against progressive art supporters, the “yellow peril” was hastily moved to a less central area the following year.
Despite his experience with Vault, Robertson-Swann was on Melbourne’s side. Melbourne has more good outdoor sculpture, which he defined primarily as having artistic merit as well as inviting public interaction, than Sydney does. In Melbourne he cited Denton Corker Marshall's yellow and red-stick sculpture Melbourne Gateway, which greets visitors at the city end of the freeway from Melbourne airport and gives Melbourne a sense of being prosperous and confident. In Sydney he nominated the late Rayner Hoff's work on the Anzac War Memorial in Hyde Park, completed in 1934 as Sydney's most moving example of publicly visible sculpture.
Great Petition, by Susan Hewitt and Penelope Lee, 2008.
As the plaque explains, this first suffragette petition was gathered in Melbourne. The 30,000 signatures were presented to Parliament in Sep 1891.Melbourne art critic and blogger Mark Holsworth, pointing to the larger Shane Warne cricket statue at the MCG, said Melbourne was still replete with memorials intended to inspire patriotism, whatever that is. Therefore it should be a question of balancing public popularity with artistic taste in sculpture. The sculpture Great Petition by Susan Hewitt and Penelope Lee, marking the suffragette petition for the vote, has three important qualities – it is 1. beautiful, 2. well located on a grassy reserve near Parliament and 3. universal suffrage was historically important to Australia. Clearly some members of the public like to be photographed alongside and on the scrolls.
But Bruce Armstrong's Eagle, on a median strip on Wurundjeri Way, is less successful because Melbournians cannot get close to it. Compare the Eagle’s location to that of Simon Perry's red granite sculpture The Public Purse in the Bourke Street Mall. Public Purse is very successful because the sculpture works as a seat and as a meeting place, and children love it because they can climb on it. Perry's sculptures may not be great works of art, but they are successful public sculptures.
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The Public Purse, by Simon Perry, 1994
red granite sculpture,
in the Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne
Now Mark Holsworth’s book Sculptures of Melbourne (published by Melbourne Books in April 2015) is due for release. I will be very keen to see how sculpture started in the colony, and to look for changing decisions that altered the public appearance of the city. When Melbourne was established, sculpture was heavily influenced by the colonial legacy of neo-classical bronze and marble statues. From 1980 onwards, the book shows how public sculpture changed dramatically, not only in style but in materials, location and sheer numbers.
The reader will note the shifting trends in public sculpture which moved from a classical style, to commemorative, to a corporate modernist style, to being integrated into urban design, and finally evolving into a contemporary style, which is non-traditional and temporary. The models for the sculpture moved from historical and religious icons... to literary and social figures.
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Internationally famous sports stars
around the Avenue of Legends
Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne (population 4.2 million) is often awarded the World’s Most Livable City title. So the book will have the task of showing how Melbourne’s collection of sculptures are worthy narratives of place and time; that they have established specific reference points and provided a rich reflection of the history of THIS particular city.
But Bruce Armstrong's Eagle, on a median strip on Wurundjeri Way, is less successful because Melbournians cannot get close to it. Compare the Eagle’s location to that of Simon Perry's red granite sculpture The Public Purse in the Bourke Street Mall. Public Purse is very successful because the sculpture works as a seat and as a meeting place, and children love it because they can climb on it. Perry's sculptures may not be great works of art, but they are successful public sculptures.
red granite sculpture,
in the Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne
Now Mark Holsworth’s book Sculptures of Melbourne (published by Melbourne Books in April 2015) is due for release. I will be very keen to see how sculpture started in the colony, and to look for changing decisions that altered the public appearance of the city. When Melbourne was established, sculpture was heavily influenced by the colonial legacy of neo-classical bronze and marble statues. From 1980 onwards, the book shows how public sculpture changed dramatically, not only in style but in materials, location and sheer numbers.
The reader will note the shifting trends in public sculpture which moved from a classical style, to commemorative, to a corporate modernist style, to being integrated into urban design, and finally evolving into a contemporary style, which is non-traditional and temporary. The models for the sculpture moved from historical and religious icons... to literary and social figures.
around the Avenue of Legends
Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne (population 4.2 million) is often awarded the World’s Most Livable City title. So the book will have the task of showing how Melbourne’s collection of sculptures are worthy narratives of place and time; that they have established specific reference points and provided a rich reflection of the history of THIS particular city.