Out There

No, not a gay rights protest piece, but an exhibition on modern public art, or more particularly post-war public sculpture. This was at Somerset House and sounded interesting. It was but not quite for the reasons I expected. It featured some photos and a lot of models for various works of art planted in our cities, especially new towns like Harlow and Milton Keynes in the Fifties and Sixties.

I can't say a lot of the stuff particularly impressed me, except that it was "of its time". But what did interest was the little video pieces that went with it. One featured a vox pop piece from the Fifties of posh BBC bloke interviewing local cockneys about a modern sculpture that had been commissioned for their housing estate. What the locals wanted was a kid's play site, rather than a bronze of a naked dumpy looking woman playing with a young child. The locals understandably commented reasonably favourably on the child as it looked passably like a representation of a child, and not so much of the woman who was either an interesting modern representation of motherhood or just not very well modelled, depending on your viewpoint. The locals were made to look a bit thick by the middle-class interviewee for not appreciating the cutting edge fine art thrust upon them. And of course the sculpture did become a bit of a kiddie's climbing frame anyway.

However, a little further on there was a piece especially commissioned for the exhibition interviewing a number of artists and art historians about public art which was remarkably similar to that 1950's piece in attitude, without seeing any irony. It bemoaned the lack of modern commissions and the lack of care shown to these various works from the Fifties, some of which had indeed been covered up by subsequent generations unaware of how "important" they were. Now no-one defines "important". Its just a word bandied about which as far as I can see merely means fashionable amongst a select band of middle-class arts professionals. It is not difficult to see why these rather ugly lumps of concrete and bronze have been so unloved. And society is rather taken to task for being so philistine as not to to realise how much these works enrich the lives of the working classes. If only they could realise it. Far more than the children's play area they would rather have.

Boar by Elizabeth Frink

Tottenham Court Road tube murals by Edouardo Paolozzi

Winged Figure by Barbara Hepworth

Water Gardens by William Mitchell

Old Flo by Henry Moore

The Meat Porters  by  Ralph Brown