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cover


Author
Bob and Roberta Smith

Paperback
160 pages
220 b/w and colour ills
24.0 x 18.0 cm
9.5 x 7.0 in
ISBN13: 978 1 906155 16 2
 Bob and Roberta Smith shortlisted for Trafalgar Square fourth plinth

Make Your Own Damn Art and Art U Need: My Place in the Public Art Revolution author Bob and Roberta Smith's proposal has been shortlisted to fill the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar square.

After standing empty for the last 150 years, the plinth is now host to proposals from selected artists and has already made an extraordinary impact on the London art scene and has captured the public’s imagination.

Bob and Roberta’s piece, a giant eco-friendly sign which reads 'Faîtes L’Art, pas La Guerre (Make Art, Not War)' written in lights which are powered by the sun and wind, has received the thumbs up from Adrian Searle, The Guardian visual arts critic, Tom Lubbock, The Independent art critic and a favourable mention in The Times by Dalya Alberge.

"Only one of these designs seems worth realizing – that of Bob and Roberta Smith, aka the artist Patrick Brill"
Tom Lubbock, The Independent

Read the full article here.

"Bob and Roberta Smith’s wonderfully daft tower imagines just such an alternative history. With its solar panels, a wind generator, and the glitzy illuminated lettering enjoining us to ‘Faîtes l’art, pas la guerre’, it has a brazen vitality reminiscent of 1960s French nouveau réalisme. The sculpture has a low carbon footprint and promotes civic virtues, creativity, and language skills. The slogan itself could be a distant echo of May ’68. It is stupid, but oddly, uplifting. Man the barricades!"
Adrian Searle, The Guardian

Read the full article here.

Models of the proposed works by the six short-listed artists are on show from 8 January 2008 at the National Gallery, London.



Interview with Art U Need author in Useless magazine
Bob and Roberta Smith, the author of our new book, Art U Need: My Place in the Public Art Revolution, has been interviewed in the latest issue of Useless magazine. For more information on Useless see here.



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Art U Need
My Part in the Public Art Revolution

Artist Bob and Roberta Smith was recently appointed by Commissions East to oversee a project in which five artists were commissioned to create site-specific projects to transform open spaces in South Essex. Art U Need: My Part in the Public Art Revolution is an intimate account of this project, written in diary form. With sensitivity, candour and a great deal of humour, Bob Smith, and his alter ego, Roberta, ponder the nature and place of public art in today’s world.


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Art U Need is a refreshing addition to the art debate, providing a unique insight into the workings of the artist’s mind. Through his remarkably honest approach Bob and Roberta Smith manages to encapsulate the larger issues surrounding the roles of funding bodies, self-expression and, of course, the public, in public art today.

Similar in feel to our previous title with Bob and Roberta, Make Your Own Damn Art, the book is a beautiful object as well as a useful resource. The text is complemented by edgy design and vividly illustrated with original photography and artwork by Smith and the other artists involved, making the book itself as quirky and unique as its contents.

Charming and accessibly written, Art U Need: My Part in the Public Art Revolution will appeal to young artists, students and the world of public art equally. Through his musings and arguments with his alter-ego Roberta, Smith allows the reader a glimpse into the artist’s life and mind, and a fascinating observation of the world of public art today that is illuminating, honest and lighthearted.

Bob and Roberta Smith is the pseudonym of Patrick Brill, one of London’s most instantly recognisable and colourful artists. Noted for his radical sign painting, cement sculptures and other urban installations, he has recently shown work at The Brick Lane Gallery, The Baltic Centre, The Hales Gallery and exhibited internationally, notably at the Perogi Gallery in New York.

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