Joyce Kozloff

Synopsis by Jodene Eikenberry

Joyce Kozloff began her slide presentation by stating that she'd made public art for about twenty years but that she felt "done with it" now; the ensuing show would in fact be a retrospective of her public art works. She advises students that public art making is not always a good fit with an "intensely private artist," due to the degree of interaction required to complete projects. She spoke of her desire to reach a larger audience than available through galleries, which is a factor she loves about public art making. She also warned of the deterioration befalling many public artworks as money is rarely built into budgets to maintain commissioned pieces.

Kozloff proceeded to show slides of ten projects completed between, approximately, 1979 and 1996 while describing her practice. She conceptualized the work by engaging in various forms of research, for instance walking around the city of Boston to get a visual sense of its themes and symbols for her Harvard Square subway project; delving into movie stills and cinematic history for her Los Angeles subway project; researching the Arts and Crafts period, particularly the ornament of architect Frank Furness, for the renovation of his Amtrak Station in Wilmington, Delaware, built in 1908; incorporating representative imagery of Carnival for a junior high school in New York City with a high percentage of Caribbean students.

She generally approached commissions with the intention of integrating local subject matter into the work as an aesthetic, rather than narrative, structure.

Kozloff described her public works–especially her many transportation projects–as "created with the intention of being experienced on a daily basis over a number of years." The works are visually complex and layered with details that can be revealed slowly over time. Her works incorporate a motif of patterns and images that resemble tapestries or quilts which she believes carry a rich historical tradition. The works are constructed either from painted tile or mosaic. Kozloff hand painted all the tile pieces. She then collaborated with ceramists in choosing and applying various glazes to produce effects specific to the piece; for instance, in her piece, "Around the World on the 44th Parallel" at Memorial Library, Mankato State University, Mankato, MN, in which she created maps of twelve cities on the 44th parallel (four in North America, four in Europe, and four in Asia), into which she wove images and motifs that evoke each city's cultural history, she incorporated crystalline glazes reminiscent of tie dye to reference the "hippy-dippy" world of Ben & Jerry's, as well as early New England stencil patterns used traditionally to produce the effect of wallpaper. The mosaics pieces, on the other hand, were made in collaboration with mosaic artisans, as it is a technique that requires years to master. She prefers the tile pieces because they afforded her a more satisfying "hands on" participation with her work.

Kozloff closed by answering a few questions. In regard to her intentions as a public artist producing works that reside in the public realm, she stated that she "wouldn't define public art for other people... every artist brings a separate set of issues to public art." Later she added, "I have no broad theory of public art." For the time being she's stopped making public art because, "it took over too much of my life...I wanted time for my 'private' work... which is smaller and more intimate."

Analysis by Julie Eun-Hui An

In the last twenty years as an artist, Joyce Kozloff has aesthetically beautified and improved the environments at subway and train stations in Boston, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, a public garden in Pasadena, California, a New York junior high school and a public library in Mankato, MN. In all of these projects, Kozloff revealed extraordinary technical ability and aesthetic sense in her elaborate and highly ambitious commissioned works. All of the projects had the distinction of existing in very public spaces–all very large scale pieces comprised of hand painted glazed ceramic tiles or glass and/or marble mosaics, which take several years of planning and execution to realize.

Kozloff's presentation was a radical departure from the other presenters participating in this public art seminar. Of all the artists who presented their work, hers, without question, belonged most in the realm of the decorative arts. Her decisions as an artist were guided by visual and formal considerations, without much ostensible consideration for concept or social engagement. However, I must note that I found it curious that she only presented what she described as her "public art" projects, which clearly suggests that she thought there is a distinction between public art and her more personal or private works. Had she shown the private body of work, it would have provided an interesting contrast for the audience.

For the subway station commission she completed for the city of Los Angeles, Kozloff presented different genres and scenes from Hollywood movie classics, i.e., a science fiction section, battle scenes, scenes of passion, scenes from Westerns, etc. Kozloff was pleased that people would look at the images and relate to them and recognize them. Kozloff intentionally used popular imagery so that the material could communicate to people who saw the murals and recognition did not depend on the degree of education that the viewer had.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the presentation came at the end of Kozloff's slide presentation, when the audience was allowed to ask questions. The nature and direction of the comments and questions was extremely revealing, especially in regard to the kind of audience that Kozloff was addressing. One audience member made the statement that Kozloff did not make "socially engaging" work. Another audience member took issue with the fact that, in the Los Angeles commission, Kozloff failed to depict people of color and that this could have negative effects in the community. These comments reflect the trend today in public art, how art projects have moved from the aesthetic realm to the social realm, i.e., there is a demand or expectation of artists to engage in social and political issues, to represent all communities and address social injustices of all sorts. Kozloff, wisely, remarked that she "cannot come up with a broad theory of public art." For the public art projects she executed, Kozloff simply wants her audience to "...experience it over time and enjoy it."

Joyce Kozloff responds:

When I talk about my work, I always show both the public and private, as they inform and feed one another; but for this event, I was invited to speak only about the public art. This came at an odd moment in my life, when I had pulled back into my studio to work out some more intimate ideas.

My choice, to work in the decorative arts, beginning in the 1970s, had a populist intention: to communicate with a broad public. I have always considered myself a socially engaged artist! To make a separation between the "aesthetic" and the "political" is narrow and doctrinaire–why can’t we have both?