New Genre Public Art and the Law

Abstract

This piece critiques new genre public art, an artistic practice that emerged in the late 1970s and emphasizes spatial context and social engagement. Using the moveable public artwork Park (2000-2001) by Deborah Stratman, which highlights Chicago’s South Side’s use and misuse of public space, this paper connects public art and urbanism to reveal contradictions and concerns with their respective legal frameworks. While historicized new genre public artworks emphasize direct engagement and a strictly adhered-to narrative—such as Suzanne Lacy’s Three Weeks in May (1977) or REPOhistory’s Circulation (2000)— Stratman’s Park operates in the antithesis. Dynamic new genre public artworks, Stratman demonstrates, can purposefully complicate, confuse, and combat their audience while still conveying their arguments effectively. Park’s “anti-engagement” with its context becomes a framing mechanism that highlights public art’s naïve role in low socioeconomic areas. A work’s legal status then reveals to artists and urban planners how an artwork may react to specific audiences, which can be used as a tool to encourage certain reactions to a work’s visitors.