Sculptural installations can fail for a variety of reasons — some site specific works are not built to accommodate changing conditions, others are scorned by the community (see Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc), and finally, there is a category of works that are just plain dangerous. This week I’m counting down 5 art installation disasters, mishaps [...]

It’s not uncommon for artists to settle disputes out of court to avoid protracted litigation. For instance, in 1980 Robert Rauschenberg settled with photographer Morton Beebe after discovering that his photograph was used in Rauschenberg’s seminal work Pull (1974). The agreement included $3,000 and a copy of the work. Whether for financial or PR reasons, [...]

In 1979, the United States General Services Administration (GSA) selected Richard Serra to create an outdoor sculpture for installation at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan. The sculpture was commissioned under GSA’s art-in-architecture program which mandated that one half of one percent of the construction cost of federal buildings is reserved for funding artworks by [...]