Named and shamed: the six worst works of British public art | Jonathan Jones

These examples – from a dead tree in the middle of Kirkby to an eye-wounding erection off the coast of Tyneside – show how badly sculpture has lost its way

I blame Thomas Cromwell. In real life the hero of Wolf Hall was the rottweiler of the Reformation who took an enthusiastic lead in ransacking a medieval artistic heritage rooted in shared beliefs, common symbols, and a popular visual language. The dissolution of the monasteries that Cromwell spearheaded shattered this culture of public art. Every British town once had its shrines to Mary, its statues of prophets and murals of martyrs. The artistic richness that visitors to Italian cities adore could once be enjoyed in British cities, not to mention village churches.

Now we have a blasted tree. Or at least, that’s what Kirkby on Merseyside now has in the name of public art. After a planned Tesco store was cancelled, all that remains of this commercial project in Kirkby’s town centre is a public artwork partly paid for by the troubled supermarket giant. The final work will include other elements, insists artist Geoff Wood, but so far it consists of a towering replica of a dead tree.

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