On Friday Art in the Open: Fifty Years of Public Art in New York opens at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). On display until May 13, 2018, the small but visually dense exhibition (designed by Tsao & McKown) covers notable displays of public art in New York's public spaces from 1967 to the present. Though described by curator Lilly Tuttle in today's press preview as "not comprehensive," the exhibition's four parts touch upon just about all of the major pieces of public art executed in those years.

Easily one of the most famous public artworks in New York or any city in the last fifty years is Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates, which took over the paths of Central Park in February 2005. Like Wheatfield, I did not see the saffron-colored torii in person, but like that earlier artwork The Gates was documented thoroughly ? enough that no less than three books were published on the project.
This last fact made me take a closer look at the artworks displayed in the corridor's timeline, only to realize that many of them are subjects of books: Rachel Whiteread's Water Tower, Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, and the MTA Arts for Transit program, among others. Especially when it's temporary, public art must make a great subject for a book ? a memento of a sculpture, event or some other display of art in the public realm. If only MCNY would have made a book documenting the artworks they put on display ? a venue for adding some depth to the other...