That's a bold enough claim, the subtitle of the article. I'd like to know why we don't see great sculptors. What has happened? Is it because of photography? Or the nuisances of primitive and conceptual art that eliminated the training grounds and funding necessary to support grand sculpture? Just a loss of craftsmen everywhere? A reduction in funding for public beauty as opposed to moralizing/meaningless or functional (think jungle gyms) parks? Is it the committees? - but we had committees before, and they approved Olmstead, McKim Mead and White, etc.

Does anyone care to explore this or is the claim just so bold and so tenditious that people prefer to ignore it?

You can view some of Gauden's great public sculpture at www.MuseumPlanet.com Just click on New York and do a search. Gaudens was amazing...and unfortunately we are unlikely to see someone of his talent come our way for a long time.

There are plenty. The just don't necessarily work in Saint-Gaudens' romantic style. We live in a far too cynical world to support that sort of thing anyway. There is nothing wrong with the "craftsmanship" of contemporary artists. It's not them. It's us.

By the way, the subtitle does not claim there are no "great sculptors." It claims there are no "great public sculptors." There is a major difference.

Really? And by 'us' you mean yourself included? I'm somewhat confused. Also, when you speak of craftsmanship... where are you seeing this evidenced in current public sculpture? I certainly have seen plenty of public scuptures that show no particular craftsmanship.

By "us" I mean the public as a whole, and in part I mean that we give fuck-all about public spaces, particularly in the US. We have been defunding public spaces of all kind for decades in favor of living alone behind locked gates in shitty McMansions. So it's some surprise that public art has suffered? And yes, there are plenty of sculptors with jaw-dropping technical skills. For example <link>

Cme on now Ben, the problem is... SOCIALISM, isn't it? Out with it now; you're dying to say it.

Well, I've seen some similar hyper-real sculpture - it can be pretty striking, I agree. However, the examples of public nastiness include Aesop's Fables, II - Mark Di Suvero, 2005; just to pick out one example.

Is funding the problem? Perhaps partly. I have strong views on funding human-scale public spaces and not using the blunt instrument of zoning with percentile footprint as the sole arbiter of what is a good green space. However, I think there are other issues in the public art arena, including misplaced multiculturalism that actually draws from no culture at all and an inability to accept classic forms as effective memorials and monuments.

Actually, communist realism made some pretty striking statuary early in the revolution. It became somewhat stagnant later, but there are some nice examples in China, and probably some of it survives in Russia and the former Bloc nations.

Yep. Now I know why you can't tell the difference between the Capitol and the Supreme Court.