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concept:era contemporary

Tilted Arc

Site-specific Cor-Ten steel sculpture by Richard Serra, installed 1981, Federal Plaza, New York City; destroyed 1989 on federal order. 3.65 m high × 36.6 m long × 6.4 cm thick. The most prominent case of destruction of a commissioned public artwork in American history.

Scholarly Significance

Public art controversy — Tilted Arc's forced removal in 1989 is the defining American case of site-specificity, public art rights, and government censorship of art.

Notes

  • ·Commissioned in 1979 by the US GSA under its Art-in-Architecture program; installed in Federal Plaza in 1981.
  • ·The arc bisected the plaza, forcing pedestrians to walk around it; this alteration of circulation was deliberate and integral to the site-specific concept.
  • ·Opposition from federal workers led to public hearings in 1985. Despite testimony from over 100 artists and scholars in favour of the work, the Regional Administrator William Diamond ordered its removal.
  • ·Serra sued the government, arguing the work was site-specific and removal was destruction; the courts ruled against him.
  • ·Removed overnight on March 15, 1989, and cut into three sections. The sections were stored in a government warehouse in Brooklyn; the current location of all sections is disputed.
  • ·The case established key legal questions about artists' rights to site-specific work under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), enacted in 1990 partly in response to this controversy.