Out There: Our Post-War Public Art

Interesting exhibition at Somerset House organised by Historic England looking at work in the public realm since the Second World War.

This show had a good balance of real objects, document s and photographs. It highlighted the role this work had played but also at the current vulnerability of the work.

The first section looked at the Festival of Britain and the work commissioned for that. There was a lovely selection of marquettes of the pieces as many of the originals had been made in cheaper materials with no idea of them having a life after the exhibition. Particularly interesting was a model for Miranda by Arthur Fleishmann which had formed a fountain in the display for the Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Company display.

I liked the section on Harlow new town which has 65 integrated art works around the town including a number such as Elizabeth Frink’s Board which have recently been listed.  Also the section on how the Ministry of Education encouraged schools to allocate a small amount of their budgets for commissioning new work.

There was a very interesting section on a scheme in the 1970s which hadn’t worked where 8 cities were lent large works however many of them were vandalised and only one of the 16 lent was eventually bought by the city! I loved the story of a giant gorilla which is evidently now in someone’s back garden,

At the end there was a board showing works which are now missing and others which have been listed.

Closes on 10 April 2016.

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