The artistic expression demonstrated as support to this study started in Brazil in the 1980s, when some Brazilian cities created laws to determine the installation of an artwork in public and private buildings, justified by the increase the enjoyment of art in the urban environment and encouragement of local artists. Because this artistic expression is presented mainly in front of residential buildings, it is constituted in a sector of the art market that makes construction companies or real estate the main demanders for artistic works. Considering that art is a that tends to be misunderstood by its contemporaries (MARX, 1999), but that originally performs the function of provoking social and historical transformations (LUKACS, 1970), it was decided to analyze art as an obligation in urban space, in order to reflect on the character of its originality in relation to the development of the city understood as a work (LEFEBVRE, 1991). Based on that, the research undertakes the thesis that the originality of the art in the of the city goes away in the space produced, while the collaborative tendencies among works in the sense of art and the city are relegated to banality. The objective was to analyze the originality of art as an obligation through the visualization of its spatial condition produced by agents who hold economic and political powers, taking as an example the historical and current influences included in the urban space of the city of Joao Pessoa - PB. For the elaboration of the research, a bibliographical revision was made on the themes of art history, production of urban space, art in capitalist society, art and environment, and originality. Documentary research was also carried out at the Historical Heritage Institute of the State of Paraiba - Brazil, to survey the city's artistic heritage and consult the documentation at the Culture Foundation of the city of Joao Pessoa, which provided the primary data for the elaboration of a bank of geographic data, composed of a total of 344 works of art that were installed from 2013 to 2015. This information supported the elaboration of a set of charts, tables and maps on the art exhibited in the city of Joao Pessoa. Field was carried out in the city of Joao Pessoa and Recife. The debate followed the reflection on the originality of art, the collaborative relations among art, city and the theme of the environment, and discussed on art in capitalism. In this way, the conflicting and insipient situation of art as an obligation in the urban space, subverted to the productive logic that understands housing as a commodity, has been demonstrated to the detriment of value of use of the city and the enjoyment of art in the public space.