This list features two sortable tables of art works on permanent public display in Boston, Massachusetts and its neighborhoods
It comprises works of public art, including sculpture, relief panels, tablets and fountains with sculptural features, accessible in an outdoor public spaces or inside state or federally owned public buildings. This does not include artwork visible inside museums or visible only on private property.
This table is not complete and most likely will not include recent installations. Please feel welcome to contribute/add these in the Additional Artworks area below.
The tables' columns (except for note, Type and Image) are sortable by pressing the arrows symbols. The following gives an overview of what information is included in the table.
This page seeks to be an aggregate list of general facts. For information on individual sculptures, please visit the individual artwork's pages.
Includes: Back Bay, Boston, North End, South End, Boston
Includes: Charlestown, East Boston, and Jamaica Plain (Cambridge has its own page)
Title | Artist | Year | Location | Material | Dimensions | Notes | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Death and the Sculptor | Daniel Chester French | 1889 | Jamaica Plain | bronze | |||
Firemen's Memorial | John A. Wilson | 1909 | Jamaica Plain | bronze; granite | |||
Madonna, Queen of the Universe | Arrigo Minerbi | 1954 | East Boston | bronze, copper | height: 10.6 m (35 ft) | ||
Massachusetts Korean War Memorial | Robert Shure; Moisey S. Altshuler | 1993 | Charlestown | bronze; granite; brick | |||
Donald McKay Memorial | Robert Shure | 2005 | East Boston | bronze; granite | |||
William Prescott Statue | William Wetmore Story | 1881 | Charlestown, Monument Square | bronze; granite (Quincy) | sculpture: 8 ft. x 4 ft. x 5 ft. 10 in. plinth:74" x 64" x 70" | ||
Vietnam Veterans Memorial | 2009 | Charlestown Green Street 42°13′32″N71°02′18″W / 42.22565°N 71.03824°W | granite | ||||
Joseph Warren Statue | Henry Dexter | 1857 | Charlestown | ||||
World War II Memorial, Charlestown | 1946 | Charlestown | granite | height: 15 ft. |
Gas sculpture is a concept introduced by Joan Miró to make sculptures out of gaseous materials. The idea of a gas sculpture also appeared in the book Gog, by Giovanni Papini (1881–1956).
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth, meaning all adult residents of the state are entitled to borrowing and research privileges, and the library receives state funding. The Boston Public Library contains approximately 24 million items, making it the third-largest public library in the United States behind the federal Library of Congress and New York Public Library, which is also privately endowed. In 2014, the library held more than 10,000 programs, all free to the public, and lent 3.7 million materials.
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Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically accessible to the public; it is installed in public space in both outdoor and indoor settings. Public art seeks to embody public or universal concepts rather than commercial, partisan, or personal concepts or interests. Notably, public art is also the direct or indirect product of a public process of creation, procurement, and/or maintenance.
Washington Street is a street originating in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, which extends southwestward to the Massachusetts–Rhode Island state line. The majority of its length outside of the city was built as the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike in the early 19th century. It is the longest street in Boston and remains one of the longest streets in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Due to various municipal annexations with the city of Boston, the name Washington Street now exists 6 or more times within the jurisdiction(s) of the City of Boston.
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Sylvette is a large concrete sculpture created by Pablo Picasso and the Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar, which was erected in the city of Rotterdam in 1970. It is located on the corner of Westersingel next to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The sculpture portrays a young woman with a ponytail. The model for the sculpture was Sylvette David, whom Picasso met in 1953 when she was 19. The sculpture was produced following the creation of a series of artworks, known as the Sylvette series, that Picasso made of his muse in a variety of artistic styles.
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Gladys the Swiss Dairy Cow, also known simply as "Gladys", is a work of public art in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Gladys was created and is maintained by artist/owner James Lebinski since August 2002. The underlying sculpture is a fiberglass Swiss dairy cow, and is the same shape and size as the famous CowParade cows.
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