New York City may be home to the world’s premier museums and galleries, but many of the most celebrated and experimental artworks memorably shown in the city debuted outside the walls of those spaces. From the 1960s to the present, public art in New York has undergone huge changes and reinventions by artists, with pieces evolving from interventions in abandoned warehouses to multi-location installations. To trace the history of some of the most important public artworks in the city’s recent history, ARTnews spoke to Nicholas Baume, director and chief curator of the Public Art Fund, and Micaela Martegani, executive director and chief curator of the nonprofit More Art. Their insights on standout works over the years follow below.
In an interview with ARTnews, Martegani recalled some of More Art’s most significant commissions over the last 10 years. One of the most resonant projects was Dread Scott’s 2014 performance On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide in Dumbo. For the piece, which was captured in photographs and video footage, the artist attempted to walk against the force of a fire hose for 15 minutes. This “battle” between the artist and the hose, as Martegani put it, was anchored in events of the civil rights movement and police brutality in America, but it also “transcended what happened historically and it was about discrimination in general.” The work became the subject of program at a Brooklyn school whose students attended the performance.
