July 19, 1985

IF there is no feast of outdoor sculpture this summer, there is also no famine. This is the year in which the widely acclaimed Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum opened in Long Island City. And the controversy over Richard Serra's ''Tilted Arc,'' in Federal Plaza, has probably focused more attention on public sculpture than ever before. The outdoor sculpture this summer is strong in two directions. One is political. There is challenging work by Vito Acconci, David Finn and Dennis Adams that is determined to focus attention on particular social issues or on the message of the media in which issues and desires are presented and defined. There is also a flourishing body of sculpture that is constructed and architectural, yet filled with a broad range of content. As much as the political work, the large, constructive sculptures by artists like David Seccombe and Elizabeth Egbert exist outside the gallery and museum system.

Nine women have been attacked at knifepoint -five of them sexually assaulted - in five midtown Manhattan office buildings since June 11, and the police said yesterday that they were searching for one man in the case. Of the attacks, all in elevators between 1 P.M. and 6:30 P.M., four took place in buildings that are among the busiest and best-known commercial towers -two in the Chrysler Building, 405 Lexington Avenue at 42d Street, and two in the Pan Am Building, 200 Park Avenue, at 45th Street. Seven of the victims were robbed of their money and jewelry. In the two other instances, the women screamed and the man fled without robbing or injuring them.

At the Cemetery of the Heroes in a quiet corner of this former capital of Portuguese Timor, new rows of simple white headstones on the graves of fallen Indonesians offer silent evidence that a decade-long guerrilla war is not yet over. For most Timorese now under Indonesian rule, life has begun to improve materially, the countryside of this island in the eastern Indonesian archipelago has been largely peaceful and the number of political detainees has dropped sharply. It is 10 years since Portugal abandoned its impoverished territory to civil conflict. The subsequent sudden and, by most accounts, brutal invasion by Indonesia brought world attention to this remote corner of the western Pacific and prompted international condemnation of Jakarta. Today people are still meeting violent death in East Timor's barren hills. They are victims of a conflict that even the guerrillas' supporters say they cannot win, but one that the Indonesian Army has not been able to end.

A dispatch from Jerusalem last Thursday on the conviction of 15 Jewish settlers for terrorist acts against Arabs said a suspect in one case, Era Rappaport, fled Israel before the trial began and was being sought by the Israeli police. Mr. Rappaport, who holds American and Israeli citizenship, is reported to be living in the New York area. Although the Israeli Government has not filed formal charges against Mr. Rappaport or asked for his extradition, the Israeli police say he is wanted for questioning about a bombing in 1980 that maimed two mayors in the West Bank. The article should have noted that Mr. Rappaport has maintained, through his lawyer and other associates, that he did not flee Israel, and that he has been living openly in the United States since his arrival. Page D1

The Economy The economy grew at only a 1.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said. That was much slower than estimated a month ago and follows a first-quarter gain of merely 0.3 percent. Commerce Secretary Baldrige predicted a second-half expansion at roughly a 4 percent rate, but some analysts were less optimistic, chiefly because of a big inflow of imports. The slow growth suggests new difficulties in the already stalemated efforts to reduce the Federal budget deficit. [Page A1.] Industrial output rose only 0.1 percent in June. [D2.] The Fed will not try to lower the dollar as a way to ease the trade deficit, its chairman, Paul A. Volcker, told a Senate committee. A strong dollar helps finance the $200 billion Federal budget deficit, which he considers more important. [D2.]