Public Art 1945-95 Introductions to Heritage Assets Summary Historic England’s Introductions to Heritage Assets (IHAs) are accessible, authoritative, illustrated summaries of what we know about specific types of archaeological site, building, landscape or marine asset. Typically they deal with subjects which lack such a summary. This can either be where the literature is dauntingly voluminous, or alternatively where little has been written. Most often it is the latter, and many IHAs bring understanding of site or building types which are neglected or little understood. Many of these are what might be thought of as ‘new heritage’, that is they date from after the Second World War. This IHA provides an overview of the main trends in post-war public art. Statuary has long been a feature of our townscapes, but the proliferation of public art following the Second World War was rather different. Public art is defined here as fixed artworks which members of the public are able to access and appreciate. Works may be sited in the public, civic, communal or commercial domain, in semi-public or privately owned public space, or within public, civic or institutional buildings. Artworks which form part of the structure or decoration of buildings may also be categorised as public art. Post-war public artworks, which number several thousand, comprise everything from abstract, fine art sculptures to concrete reliefs and fibreglass murals. They are sited not only in formal settings but also in everyday locations such as schools, shopping centres and office plazas. Their artists ranged from the internationally known to the totally unknown. This guidance note has been written by Lynn Pearson and edited by Paul Stamper. It is one is of several guidance documents that can be accessed HistoricEngland.org.uk/listing/selection-criteria/listing-selection/ihas-buildings/ First published by Historic England January 2016. All images © Historic England unless otherwise stated. HistoricEngland.org.uk/advice/ Front cover A group of three totemic concrete sculptures (1966) William Mitchell. The Mayan-style columns were each at Salford Technical College (now the University of made up from four concrete blocks and measure nearly Salford), Greater Manchester, by leading public artist 6m in height; they were listed Grade II in 2012. Contents Introduction .........................................1 1 Historical Background .................3 2 Development of Post-War Public Art ......................7 2.1 From 1946 to the 1960s: Sculpture .............7 2.2 From 1946 to the 1960s: Murals ................10 2.3 The 1970s and 1980s: Sculpture ...............11 2.4 The 1970s and 1980s: Murals ....................13 2.5 The 1990s onward ......................................13 3 Associations ..............................15 4 Change and the Future ..............16 5 Further Reading .........................17 6 Acknowledgements ...................18 Introduction Statuary has been a feature of our townscapes since stone images of saints and martyrs appeared on the facades of medieval cathedrals. Over the centuries royalty, politicians and military heroes have all been immortalised by statues, particularly during the period of ‘statuemania’ in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the proliferation of public art following the Second World War was rather different. Public art is defined here as fixed artworks which members of the public are able to access and appreciate. Works may be sited in the public, civic, communal or commercial domain, in semi-public or privately owned public space, or within public, civic or institutional buildings. Artworks which form part of the structure or decoration of buildings may also be categorised as public art. Figure 1 The concrete mural wall (1966, William Mitchell, listed it measures about 4m high and 11.5m long. The reverse Grade II) of the former Three Tuns pub in Coventry, of the structural wall, with its less obvious relief design, West Midlands, shows Mitchell’s typical relief detailing was originally part of the pub’s interior design. created using his own innovative casting techniques; < < Contents 1 Post-war public art includes everything from Historic England’s listing selection guide abstract, fine art sculptures to concrete reliefs Commemorative Structures (2011) gives brief and fibreglass murals, and the works could be consideration to 20th-century public sculptures. found not only in formal settings but in everyday There are currently about 90 post-war sculptures, locations such as schools, shopping centres and including four fountains, on the National Heritage office plazas. Sculptures were often free-standing List for England (NHLE); eleven are listed at but might be attached to buildings, while the Grade II*, the rest Grade II. The youngest listed murals – in the broadest sense of the term – varied stand-alone public sculpture at time of writing from traditional painted works to sculptural, was the Desert Quartet (1989, Elisabeth Frink) structural walls (Fig 1). Their artists ranged from in Worthing, West Sussex, listed at Grade II* the internationally known to the totally unknown. in 2007. However, the Grade I listing in 2015 of the British Library (1982-99) in the London As yet, there is no definitive count of post-war Borough of Camden, includes the sculpture artworks. In 2004 the Public Monuments and Newton (after Blake) (1995, Eduardo Paolozzi) Sculpture Association (PMSA) estimated that as a component of the library’s design. there were over 15,000 works of public sculpture of all eras in Britain. Considering solely England, Around 30 Second World War memorials, and taking quantitative data into account from some of which have significant sculptural the PMSA’s ongoing National Recording Project, content, are also listed. There are also eleven set up in 1997, a reasonable estimate of the mural reliefs (dating from 1949-68), the number of substantial post-war sculptures might latter all Grade II. A further 60 or so post-war be of the order of 6,000, with those dating from murals of all types, including painted, mosaic, prior to 1986 numbering in the region of 2,000. concrete and ceramic tile works, are features Many areas saw rises in commissioning during of buildings appearing on the NHLE, and are the 1950s-1960s and even more sharply from the often detailed in their List entry descriptions. 1990s. As for the murals, a database available via the Twentieth Century Society lists just under 600 surviving works installed in England between 1946 and 1985, although there is some overlap with the PMSA data on mural reliefs. 1 < < Contents 2 1 Historical Background The post-war institutional promotion of sculpture were education authorities, especially those of and other art forms, characterised as bringing Leicestershire and Hertfordshire, the intention art to the people, was an intrinsic part of the being to improve the school environment and reconstruction and regeneration programme encourage creativity (Fig 2). From the late 1940s necessitated by wartime devastation. Some of the Leicestershire’s schools received a startlingly earliest bodies to commission and buy artworks broad range of contemporary art, including Figure 2 Family Group (1947-9, Henry Moore, listed Grade II), originally intended for a Cambridgeshire college, was was installed at the Barclay School, Stevenage, initially sited outdoors but now stands in the entrance Hertfordshire, in 1950; it was the first important post-war hall. Its form emphasises the parental role played by secondary school to be built. The bronze sculpture, the school. < < Contents 3 abstract sculptures; no new building was from the Committee for the Encouragement of without a sculpture or mural as a focal point. In Music and the Arts, itself set up in 1940. During the Hertfordshire, between 1949 and 1953, a third of late 1950s the Arts Council organised nationwide one per cent of the budget for each new school touring exhibitions of outdoor sculpture. was set aside for the purchase of works of art. The immediate post-war era’s most significant Art patronage by the London County Council (LCC) display of artistic patronage came with the 1951 began in the summer of 1948 with its sponsorship Festival of Britain. Over eight million visitors to its of an open air sculpture exhibition in Battersea South Bank Exhibition in London saw more than Park (London Borough of Wandsworth), which 30 sculptures by a combination of well-known over 170,000 people paid to attend; the public artists and rising talents. The Arts Council were allowed to touch the works, which included commissioned three of the works, by Jacob two by Henry Moore. The exhibition turned out Epstein, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, to be the first of a triennial series of seven; four while the government-funded Festival of Britain more were held in Battersea Park (Fig 3) and two Office paid for the rest. The intention was to show at Holland Park (Royal Borough of Kensington and how sculptures could be an integral part of the Chelsea). They were organised in collaboration modern townscape, with individual works sited in with the Arts Council, which was formed in 1945 a positive relationship to the surrounding buildings; Figure 3 A view of the 1966 open air sculpture exhibition in the Greater London Council. The 42 sculptures on London’s Battersea Park, the seventh and last in a display included works by Barbara Hepworth, Henry triennial series organised by the LCC and its successor, Moore and Eduardo Paolozzi.