the tilted arc controversy

Dana Ignarski
10/28/03
The Tilted Arc Controversy

The twelve-foot-high by 120-foot-long arc of two and a half-inch-thick rusting Cor-Ten steel had once stood amidst the Federal Plaza of New York City. Opposing public opinion provoked miscommunication between artist Richard Serra and the government, questioning the intent and value of the architecture and its surroundings. Because of the lack of education as to why it was chosen for public art, the community may have disliked the piece’s purpose. The artist may have also obscured the sincere and forthright intentions of Tilted Arc’s design.

On the night of March 16, 1989, the General Services Administration (GSA) dismantled Tilted Arc. Ten years earlier, the same federal government agency commissioned Richard Serra to build an urban sculpture for permanent installation in the Federal Plaza as a part of its percent-for-art program (Serra, 35). The GSA agency offices in both Washington and New York accepted the...