Assisi: An Online Journal of Arts & Letters Volume 4, Issues 1 & 2 | Page 34

character of their races and genders and Civic Virtue began its journey from Borough to
Borough to Borough, to the hinterlands of Queens and ultimately to reside amongst
tombstones. Serra’s work was eventually sold for scrap. Judges staring out of their
windows and seeing the rusting
hulk of the Tilted Arc curving
beneath them or having to
sidestep the structure as they
entered and left their office
building, recognized the work as
inherently antagonistic to their
authority. They insisted,
successfully, that they did not
need to abide Serra’s aggressive
assertion of his version of
human relations into the
universe they lorded over.
I began this essay on or
about New Year’s Day in 2015.
This is the fifth essay that I have
authored in the past year to
accompany drawings that I have
created for the Anna Pierrepont

Howard Skrill, City Hall Park, Manhattan, with a Rear View of
MacMoinnes' Nathan Hall at the Site of the Original placement of Civic
Virtue Triumphant Over Unrighteousness, Oil Pastel, Oil Stick, Pencil,
Chalk Pastel on Paper, 14” x 17”. ©2015

Series. I was working on ‘Civic Virtue’ in the first week of January 2015, when the culture
wars turned deadly.

Assisi !28