{"id":812,"date":"2008-05-09T12:33:38","date_gmt":"2008-05-09T16:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/?p=812"},"modified":"2008-05-09T19:08:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-09T23:08:00","slug":"king-memorial-too-confrontational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2008\/05\/09\/king-memorial-too-confrontational\/","title":{"rendered":"King Memorial Too “Confrontational”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts<\/a> 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<\/a> said in a letter in April.<\/p>\n

[ . . . ]<\/p>\n

Commission members said the sculpture “now features a stiffly frontal image, static in pose, confrontational in character[.]”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I attended the ground breaking for the memorial<\/a> 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:<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah? How about a raised arm and a closed fist? I should probably stop before I write something inappropriate.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dc","category-society"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t