This paper is the first of two linked papers that focus on the work of the Royal Fine Art Commission (RFAC), which, for three quarters of a century, held the mantel of the UK Government's advisor on ...design in the built environment for England and Wales. The paper draws on archival and documentary evidence to explore the important work and concerns of the RFAC from its creation in 1924 and its early years, through to the post-war construction boom and into the 1980s and a new less paternalistic era of government. Analysis of the archives is supplemented by what the limited available literature tells us about the RFAC. As the instigator of a national design review service covering England and Wales, the work of the RFAC forms an important context for understanding more recent approaches to design review, both in the UK and internationally, that today form a critical component of contemporary planning practices.
This paper is the second of two linked papers that focus on the work of the Royal Fine Art Commission (RFAC), which for three quarters of a century held the mantel of the UK Government's advisor on ...design in the built environment. This paper tells the story of the organization's final 15 years when, under a new and charismatic leader, the Commission substantially changed its modus operandi, and came out of the shadows, although without ever fully embracing the modern era of government. Analysis of the archives are supplemented by what the limited available literature tells us about the RFAC and by a small number of interviews with key stakeholders with first-hand experience of the operation of the RFAC; those who either worked for it, were responsible for it within Government, or were reviewed by it. The experience offers valuable insights into the practices and problematics of design governance that today, internationally, forms one of the keystones of modern day planning.
The aim of this essay is to discuss the role of chivalric culture at the end of the Middle Ages in Italian aristocratic identity, which scholars have recently revalued in the period of so-called ...courtly or urban civilization. The research focuses on an area that was slightly conditioned by court and city culture: the Alpine valleys of Lombardy. The status symbols analyzed are the housing styles and frescos inspired by history and literature. What emerges is surely the long-lived adhesion of the first rank of the aristocracy to military fantasy, exhibited in fortified houses and themes of hunting and warfare for their decoration. On the other hand, palaces and paintings are not static and mechanical manifestations of a fixed social eminence. Our approach is the social history of artistic works, in other words the microanalysis of the commission context, rather than a stylistic or a merely cultural interpretation. Many social actors (nobles, upstarts, communities, the states of Milan and Venice) were in competition for the power of using violence and of setting up structures of defense, like the fragmented jurisdiction over the Locarno castle demonstrates. This perspective allows us to reconstruct a field of aesthetic competition, rather than a mere aesthetic evolution, and to nuance some of its social implications. For example, when the state control of military structures grew and even middle-class men were enabled to inhabit a tower, the most powerful lords of the area (the Beccaria of Sondrio) chose to maintain their stately castle, but other families preferred to transform a fortified habitation into a sumptuous Renaissance villa, the new modish sign of distinction, or to live in a town building.
This study of the Delhi Urban Art Commission – a design review body in the post-colonial city of Delhi – explains its role and responsibilities, its effectiveness, and its impact on the built ...environment of Delhi. The study questions the effectiveness of the Commission. It asserts that the Commission is invaluable for Delhi as it is the only agency that has the knowledge and understanding of urban design, development, and the complexities of the post-colonial city as well as the statutory power to make a difference to Delhi’s built environment. An analysis of the Commission’s major recent decisions suggests three key reasons for its ineffectiveness: both public and private agencies regularly violate the Commission’s recommendations; it approves projects without sufficient scrutiny; and it fails to effectively use its suo motu studies. The study proposes measures to make it more accountable and transparent, and to free it from political interference to harness its full potential and restore its image and power as envisioned at its inception.
In the first half of 1930's, the Society of Civic Art made the epochal proposals to establish the municipal art commission in Tokyo. This paper is to review the process of making the first proposal ...(1930) and the second proposal (1934). Specifically, this paper is to focus on : 1)contacts with art commissions of cities in the United States and their direct influence, and 2)changes of relation between the Society of Civic Art and Tokyo City Government under the movement, which motivated by Tokyo City Government in this period, for realization of Tokyo metropolitan system.
Art commissions, which were established in some cities in the formative years of the modern city planning in United State (about from 1890s to 1920s), were juries which passed upon the design and ...location of works of art, including public facilities. In 1913, the First National Conference of Art Commissions was held and a movement for promoting the establishment of art commissions in many cities was advocated as art commission movement. The purpose of this paper is to trace this movement, focusing on relations to city planning commissions and zoning system. In conclusion, this movement didn't succeed in establishment of art commissions in the U.S. , but spread the concept of art commissions to other countries, for example, U.K. and Japan.
Opened in November 2019, Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries showcases four major new art commissions at the Science Museum, London. This article brings artistic and curatorial voices to reflect on ...their meaning, as Curator of Art Collections, Katy Barrett, talks with artists Eleanor Crook, Marc Quinn, and Sophie Nielsen and Rolf Knudsen of Studio Roso. They consider the process of producing the works, what they were inspired by and what is different about working in a medical or science context. This allows Barrett to reflect on all four commissions, how they fit into the history of art at the Science Museum, what they bring to the Museum’s collections, and what can be learnt from art in looking at and understanding science.
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