“Public art is as diverse as the people who view it” (Doss 2) said by Erika Doss. This quote means that different people view public differently, which will raise many controversies on it. Public art has to do many things when expressing the evolution of topics over time such as the development of technology, science and murals. In terms of the controversies about public art, they were mainly presented in cultural, political or historical way. Doss stated that “public art controversy can be used as a tool that enhances community awareness and civic life” (Doss 1). I totally agree with this because people would like to see their cultural interests represented in the public area, and public art is for all eyes t see and for them to have their own perspective of view on the evolution of different things.
These two interesting murals, Development of Arts and development of the Sciences in the, describe the human beings has endured for a long January to have the advanced technology and art that we own today. Also, both murals have the same setup and each one has eight panels. Also, after reading “A response to the Runquist murals” by Maruska that I know that the figure at the base of the tree in the Development of the Arts mural “is a symbol of universal human aspiration to create things of beauty” (Maruska), while in the Development of the Science the “figure at base of tree represents humanity rising to erect posture of thinking being” (Maruska). I enjoy looking at both of these murals because I could trace the history and development that they were describing. The transition from one to the other, overall the eight panels all showed how discoveries eventually lead to our current modern era throughout history.
Also, I believe it is very appropriate to put these two Runquist murals in the Knight Library because students can get inspired that they could become more innovation and have more motivation to keep on building the evolution like the people in the murals. “Public art includes sculptures, murals, memorials, monuments, civic gateways, pocket parks, playgrounds, and outdoor performances” (Doss 2), so I believe any everyone especially the student can be creative and develop new public art for everyone to look at, just like the Runquist brothers.
By the way, there are many public art works around the world, mostly depending on where you go and it sometimes relate. When I go to the Beijing Art Museum in China, I see much public art works is about that palace museum, like some picture of historical person and some stuff which they have used before in this palace. It is mainly historic and there are some cultural art pieces that show the past historic events that happen in this place.
From my perspective, public art can be very beneficial if done correctly or put an appropriate place. Because most of public art is relate to the community, personal accomplishment through his creativity, which has a deep meaning for people to explore. For instance, if let me to choose should these two murals removed in the library? I would say no, I hope more and more students can see them because they are relevant and appropriate for their public place and portray a side of history that is important to the evolution of art and science. Also, these murals, like a lot of public art were put there to give the library even more “place-bound identity” (Doss 5) ,making it unique from other libraries. And these two murals show both the great histories of art and science as well as an eighth dedicated to describing current students, allows students to take identity as the future of each respected field as they study at a school for arts and sciences. So I believe we need to open our mind and appreciate more public art works, which could make our life meaningful and enlightened through getting inspired by the art work.