Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Art History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-278).

This dissertation examines the relationship between art, architecture, and public space in Warsaw since 1970. With an awareness of the marks and erasures of history, I consider the political, social, and cultural transformations of the last five decades and how such changes are represented, omitted, and problematized in the urban landscape. Beginning with the 1970s, I discuss a series of exhibitions, performative interventions, monuments, and public art initiatives in relation to the broader context of Warsaw’s evolution from the Polish People’s Republic (PRL), through the transition years of the 1990s, to EU membership, and into the current phase of global capitalism and growing populist nationalism. My case studies illuminate the ways in which these art initiatives have had the potential to promote engagement with the urban landscape, raise questions about history and memory, and produce conditions that allow for the building of community. Chapter one examines a series of socialist-era exhibitions that used Warsaw as theme and inspiration, and boldly envisioned an alternative reality for the city, with artists reinventing public spaces and proposing ways for art to improve everyday life. The performative interventions of Akademia Ruchu, an artist collective founded in 1973, are the subject of the second chapter, which examines their Warsaw street-actions and community engagement, illuminating the importance of site and the power of the everyday. Chapter three analyzes the successes and failures of four monuments dating from 1985 to 2010, and discusses how such commemorative projects illustrate new aims in the construction of national narratives in the post-1989 period. Finally, chapter four examines the local communities and participatory practices in the work of two contemporary art initiatives: Stacja Muranów and the Bródno Sculpture Park. Together these chapters illuminate the complex relationships between art, artists, and the physical spaces they inhabit. I argue that Warsaw plays an active role in how these projects are understood, and that these meanings are often closely bound up with the realities of everyday life, both as it existed under state socialism and in the current post-socialist city. / 2022-12-13T00:00:00Z

In recent years, public art has evolved to take a central role in urban regeneration in public places and, more recently, has been integrated into city branding. Published research and selected reports revealed that public art frequently opens up sensitive issues like social acceptance, ownership and cultural relevance, and showed that a participation-based approach can be used to address these issues. The literature review confirmed the main issues and the need for a theoretical platform to support future practice. The researcher has been a professional practitioner in the field for many years and was aware of the gap between contemporary practice and academic underpinning, resulting in divergent practices with unpredictable outcomes. Key elements found in the secondary research and overlaid with the fieldwork experience of the researcher were combined to create an analytical tool to analyse 46 practical cases of public art and design. This revealed five invitation elements [triggers to induce participation] which were found to be connected to four participation elements [patterns of participation]. A first conceptual model was formulated to investigate the interactions and transformation processes between these invitation and participation elements. The model was further developed and its validity was tested through two distinctive action-based research projects in which the researcher played a leading role. The projects confirmed the validity of the transformation process in the model and emergent pragmatic value. Expert interviews confirmed the validity of the model and understanding of how it may become sustainable, resulting in a toolkit for implementation to engender debate in the academic and practitioner community. The final theoretical model offers new thinking for leading public art and design practitioners and related stakeholders, to achieve consistent add-value.

This thesis explores the concept of public art within a Swedish state agency called Public Art Agency Sweden through ethnography conducted at their virtual meetings from the fall of 2020 to the beginning of 2021. With the analytical tool of assemblages, the concept of public art is explored in terms of becoming and contestation through looking at policies within the agencies in relation to employee’s everyday endeavours. I suggest that this gives an insight into the intersection between ideas and practices within a state agency that strives to make public art a meaningful contribution and integral part of Swedish society under the premisses of the Swedish national cultural political goal. As such the contribution of this thesis is analytical attention to public art in broader governance discourses within an area of the state and culture.

Jenny Holzer has not always held her present post as a reigning figure in the world of contemporary art. When juxtaposed with the simplicity of her first text series, Truisms (1977), her recent work is increasingly more complex. Yet clearly there are qualities which have remained vital to the core aspects of Holzer?s concepts regarding art, particularly that it is intended to be seen by many, pondered over, and deciphered by the general public. She has proven herself capable of exhibiting work in a wide variety of mediums so as to address more acutely an extensive array of cultural issues. In order to remain true to her ideals while adjusting to new spaces and an ever shifting social landscape, Holzer has retained, above all, a devotion to utilizing clear, direct language. Other details in Holzer?s imagery have changed: simple black and white texts printed on posters led to more complex textual displays which employed light, color, and other various mediums (such as marble, skin, and bone, to name a few). Audiences have been winnowed away to a more select group of ?art? cognoscenti who seek out her texts, rather than the original street viewers who were caught abruptly off guard by the appearance of Holzer?s texts in public places. Rather than authoring her own texts, Holzer now also culls writings from various poets or utilizes documents from government archives; installations have grown more intricate and complex as they have moved from outdoor to gallery and museum spaces. Nonetheless, Holzer still elicits reactions to her work today that are as strong as the feelings borne towards her early works. In fact, some of these newer projects may even be more emotionally difficult to bear, as they continue to engender dialogues about issues most viewers would rather ignore because of their uncomfortable nature. This paper serves to explore the ways in which Holzer?s work has successfully matured, addresses the mechanisms by which her texts achieve their potency, and enumerates the similarities and differences between the various series Holzer has created through her career up to her Redaction Paintings (2005-2007).

Constructed in successive stages beginning in 1935, the Moscow metro was designed to be the foremost transportation system in Stalinist Moscow as well as a symbol of socialist might and a metonym for the future socialist society. Soviet officials heralded the metro as an underground palace promoting the values of socialism, and the artwork therein was meant to reflect these values. When Sverdlov Square station opened in 1938, it was decorated with bas-sculptures in the newly sanctioned socialist realist style; the artist, Natalia Danko, chose to depict pairs of male and female folk dancers from seven of the largest nationalities of the Soviet Union. Her sculptures celebrated an idealized view of folk culture that sought to glorify the Soviet state by reflecting ideals such as the joy of every day life and the friendship of the peoples. This thesis employs semiotics to reveal the ambiguity with which viewers may have read these signs, and to demonstrate the polyvalent nature of artistic production. Semiotic theory is useful in order to show how the official discourse of Socialist Realism could be both contested and reinforced through public art. The thesis contends that the Moscow metro, one of the superlative Soviet projects of the 1930s, can be understood as an ambiguous space where meaning was open to diverse interpretations.

This thesis critically analyzes the dynamics wherein the artistic field- the art world per se possessing both &#039 / glocal&#039 / and &#039 / universal&#039 / attributes- has been constructed as an autonomous field within the discourses produced about art. The research focuses on some of the moments during which the field, as becoming an &#039 / institution&#039 / inside the framework of modern state paradigm, has been imbricated and freed from social history by designating some of the fundamental arguments about its epistemological, historical and structural qualities and it shows how &#039 / autonomy&#039 / has been a stake of struggle. The narratives about how &#039 / commodification of culture&#039 / and &#039 / autonomy of the field&#039 / proceed in the &#039 / West&#039 / and in Turkey are discussed in comparison in this ethnographic study that is realized by Constructive Grounded Theory and carried out by centering a group of art professionals living in Istanbul.

This thesis critically analyzes the dynamics wherein the artistic field- the art world per se possessing both &#039 / glocal&#039 / and &#039 / universal&#039 / attributes- has been constructed as an autonomous field within the discourses produced about art. The research focuses on some of the moments during which the field, as becoming an &#039 / institution&#039 / inside the framework of modern state paradigm, has been imbricated and freed from social history by designating some of the fundamental arguments about its epistemological, historical and structural qualities and it shows how &#039 / autonomy&#039 / has been a stake of struggle. The narratives about how &#039 / commodification of culture&#039 / and &#039 / autonomy of the field&#039 / proceed in the &#039 / West&#039 / and in Turkey are discussed in comparison in this ethnographic study that is realized by Constructive Grounded Theory and carried out by centering a group of art professionals living in Istanbul.

Neglected areas are everywhere. They are seen as foreclosed homes, commercial properties, rundown lots and even small spaces like broken signage and over-sized potholes. My investigation, Abandonment ex-plores how graphic design can be used to identify neglected areas and add meaning that challenges exist-ing perceptions of these areas. This becomes a way to suggest revitalization without actually redesigning a specific space. Abandonment matches carefully designed phrases, inspired by first hand research of community members, with neglected urban environments of Atlanta. The camouflaged environmental graphics, created by means of DOT signs, chalk drawings, and blackboards recontextualize environments to softly build curiosity, activate new thinking, and potentially spark reinvention. Perhaps if citizens ques-tion these neglected spaces, they may begin to imagine new purposes for these spaces and reclaim them? The investigation is thoroughly documented and will continue to mature over time. To follow the project online, visit urbanartatlanta.com.

Constructed in successive stages beginning in 1935, the Moscow metro was designed to be the foremost transportation system in Stalinist Moscow as well as a symbol of socialist might and a metonym for the future socialist society. Soviet officials heralded the metro as an underground palace promoting the values of socialism, and the artwork therein was meant to reflect these values. When Sverdlov Square station opened in 1938, it was decorated with bas-sculptures in the newly sanctioned socialist realist style; the artist, Natalia Danko, chose to depict pairs of male and female folk dancers from seven of the largest nationalities of the Soviet Union. Her sculptures celebrated an idealized view of folk culture that sought to glorify the Soviet state by reflecting ideals such as the joy of every day life and the friendship of the peoples. This thesis employs semiotics to reveal the ambiguity with which viewers may have read these signs, and to demonstrate the polyvalent nature of artistic production. Semiotic theory is useful in order to show how the official discourse of Socialist Realism could be both contested and reinforced through public art. The thesis contends that the Moscow metro, one of the superlative Soviet projects of the 1930s, can be understood as an ambiguous space where meaning was open to diverse interpretations.