I really have no idea what to say about the latest obstacle to the completion of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the Mall:
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thinks “the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries,” commission secretary Thomas Luebke said in a letter in April.
[ . . . ]
Commission members said the sculpture “now features a stiffly frontal image, static in pose, confrontational in character[.]”
I attended the ground breaking for the memorial couple of years ago, and had been looking forward to getting to the installation stage. But the Commission has the capacity to grind things to a halt until it’s happy. Frankly, I find the criticisms really strange at this stage, and looking at the sculptor’s previous work, I think it was pretty clear what they were getting. And let’s not even touch on the use of the loaded term “confrontational” in the criticism. I hope we’ll get a little more reporting on this, so public pressure can be applied if necessary, as I’m not particularly inspired by the quotes from Commission members:
“My image of Dr. King is of him leaning forward in anticipation, holding his chin or raising his arm,” rather than standing with his arms folded, Commissioner Michael McGill said.
Yeah? How about a raised arm and a closed fist? I should probably stop before I write something inappropriate.
One thing I hadn’t realized was that when they selected sculptor Lei Yixin last year was that this meant the memorial would actually be made in China. While I thought the criticism surrounding his selection was mostly sour grapes and silly nativism (and still do), I’ll have to admit that it does seem a bit strange that what may be the last memorial on the Mall will be made in China.
Carla
Have you seen a picture of the thing? It really is very social realism looking. King has that blocky look of a Lenin or Mao statue. It’s very stern looking and there’s no sense of humanity in it. Something really does need to be done.
MB
Maybe. Honestly, I’m not all that impressed with the design concept in general, and would be open to change. I think it’s just the “too confrontational” bit that really got me.
And of course it looks like a Mao statue – that’s pretty much what Lei Yixin made his name doing :)