ABSTRACT
This chapter defends the argument that a paradox for public art commissions has been partly attenuated by the historical integration of the subversive dimension of counterculture within the contemporary public commission process, and the modes of production of urban order more broadly. It looks at the subversive potential of art as one possible outcome of its more fundamental political power. The chapter analyses what exactly constituted the subversive dimension of the artistic interventions of the European counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. Underlying the question of art's subversive potential is broader thinking with regard to the art's role in the social and political realms, which in turn questions its role in the production of symbols and legitimation of forms of government. Ephemeral approaches played an important role in the evolution of public art. The chapter also analyses the apparent paradox between public commissions and subversive art in greater detail.
