Comment Public art in the right place
WHO is public art for? Recent news about the destruction of statues of 18th century slave traders, who were hailed as great public benefactors at the time, is thought provoking. It brings into question what public art contributes to our lives.
Historic England defines public art as “fixed artworks which members of the public are able to access and appreciate”.
Birmingham has its fair share of artworks created during the ‘statue mania’ of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but it was the dramatic change seen in the public art of the post-war period that made it relevant to the communities in which it was placed.
The lifting of the cloud of war, along with the need to rebuild the country, shifted the focus of public art to reflect the spirit of the times. In Birmingham, many important artists contributed to this new direction of ‘art for the people’, including William Mitchell, John Piper and the less well-known, Handsworth-born John Poole, who trained at Birmingham School of Art.
Thirty of John Poole’s major commissions were in and around Birmingham.
Have you ever noticed the Rotunda relief in what is now the Zara shop at the bottom of the tower?
Created for the banking hall of Lloyds Bank which originally occupied the ground and first floors of James Roberts’ Rotunda, it is a 1,500 square foot ciment fondu mural.
The stunning size and impact of this abstract piece is not easily absorbed buried away among the goods on offer on Zara’s first floor, but it is well worth seeking out.
Although it is protected by the grade II listing of the Rotunda building, it is disappointing that it is not possible to view this tribute to the Industrial Revolution in all its glory.
Many other works by Poole can be seen in churches across the city, our favourite being The Risen Christ in St Dunstan’s, Kings Heath – 17 feet of welded steel for which he won the Otto Beit medal for sculpture in
1969. This tortured figure of Christ represents the horrors for all those who experienced the war.
It is also worth looking for his bronze font, font cover and memorials in Birmingham Cathedral and several works in Bournville’s St Francis of Assisi, with his wooden carving, Canticle to the Sun, above the entrance. When he died in 2009, Poole was the only sculptor to have won two Otto Beit medals. He’s another son of Birmingham whom we fail to recognise.
During the 1950s and 1960s, fostering the new democratic public art, creative alliances were forged between architects and artists, not just to decorate buildings but to make work in public spaces that expressed community and aspirational themes for the people who lived and worked in them.
John Piper was commissioned by John Madin to create the beautiful full wall mosaic for the reception of his Chamber of Commerce building on Harborne Road, Edgbaston.
Piper is regarded as one of the most important British artists of the mid-20th century, and this abstract, brightly coloured work with gloss-fired tiles is one of his first large-scale public murals. Although it has no title, Andy Foster speculates that it might be an “urban landscape, perhaps, with tall towers”. William Mitchell was commissioned by the city to create the huge concrete mural, Climbing Wall, welcomed as such by local children, at Hockley Circus. This piece humanises what could be a soulless underpass.
John Bridgeman’s grade II listed
Courtesy of www.ajohnpoole.co.uk