Essay Body

      

The three literatures that I read had different points of view about my question. In our art book they talk about the importance of government (with the creation of the National Endowment for the Art) in the appreciation of public art. In the other books they also talk about this role of government as a business. They mention that the private sector funds the National Endowment for the Arts to use public art as an advertisement tool. They agree in the fact that the creation of the National Endowment for the Art has been so important to increase the cultural level of our society. I think that every literature, even having a different approach of the topic, has a fully developed history about how the U.S government has played an important role in stimulation of public art, using public or private funds. I agreed that private patronage of public art presents a complex range of problems. I also agreed that public art can be biased and used with political purposes. If an artist receives money from an organization, he could be forced to create what that organization wants. In my opinion the most important thing is that our society has changed the way it value public art. In order to answer my question, I compared how people appreciate public art before and after the creation of the National Endowment for the Art. Noticing a big difference in this appreciation I can say that the National Endowment for the Art has increased the importance of public art for our society.

         The art work that I chose for my essay is “Monument to Joe Louis”. It is related to my question because it can be compared with the role played by the government in appreciation of public art. This monument is a symbol of action, power and stability. I think that this artwork is related to my question. As a strong arm, the U.S. government created the National Endowment for the Art to change how people value public art. While I was thinking I realized that using appropriate methods the U.S. government has changed the way people live and socialize. I think that even when this monument was created with other purposes, it represents public art and can be related to the topic discussed in this essay. If this artwork could speak, it would say: “This is the National Endowment for the Art and I was created to destroy any interference between people and public art. My strength and stability will allow me to change what needs to be changed in order to increase the cultural level of the U.S. society”. The visual elements that create this effect are the color and motion. This two elements show strength.

      In my artwork I want to make a comparison between the time before and after the creation of the National Endowment for the Art. Instead of show the strength of this organization I want to show how it has changed people lives.

    Note: I will interview Jenny Rebecca, the executive director of Space Taker. I will ask her several questions about the topic and I will post them so you can give me comments.