To Get Brilliant Public Art, Let Artists Indulge Themselves

“The public artist’s lot in modern Britain is similar to that of the portrait painter. In this century, we’ve fallen in love with public art; every city wants its Angel of the North. But just as the British portrait has been restricted for centuries by the tastes of the commissioning classes, public art is never going to be great art so long as it has to conform to the prejudices, enthusiasms and assumptions of the majority.”