American towns and cities have long been studded with public art - most of which is commemorative statuary honoring the heroic dead, or an historic event, or personifying some abstract ideal such as Truth. Typically, the subject and purpose of the commissioned work has been as much a matter of prior public agreement as has been the intended style of its execution. Artists were favored if - and because - they could express the common will and taste. In those cases where controversy has erupted - e.g. over a statue of George Washington clad in a toga or an expressionistic portrait of John F. Kennedy - the dispute has focused on the style, rather than the subject of the commission itself or on the artist who carried it out. Otherwise, art commissions, like art patronage generally, have been considered to be a private matter between individuals; the state's role was as mediator to preserve the public pease. (p. 189-204)

CONTENTS
Public arts commissioning during the New Deal.
Alternative contemporary models: the NEA and GSA.
Tilted Arc and the Vietnam Memorial.
Art in transit.
The future of public art commissions.
Notes [includes bibliography].