Published: May 09, 2008 09:15 pm         

Proposed King statue is powerful

The Back Porch column

The Washington Post reports a federal arts commission is not happy with the latest artist rendering of a statue honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and wants the image changed.

America has a great fixation with memorials and statue building, but anything done by committee is likely to be ruined. So may be the case with this latest effort to honor the slain civil rights leader.

Not long ago in West Virginia, the proposed statue honoring the state’s female combat veterans was criticized for portraying women in an unfeminine way, as if there’s a feminine side to war.

First, the King project was criticized because the private foundation building the memorial chose a Chinese sculptor instead of an American one.

Now, members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts are criticizing the model for its confrontational look that is reminiscent of the Social Realist genre of political art “that has recently been pulled down in other countries,” The Post quoted from a letter by commission secretary Thomas Luebke.

While the Post story doesn’t elaborate, perhaps Luebke was referring to the Lenin statue pulled down in Russia.

A photo of sculptor Lei Yixin working on a model accompanied the story. It shows King standing with his arms folded and a serious look on his face. Some might describe the look as resolute.

The memorial will be located on 4 acres on the northwest shore of the Tidal Basin. The commission must approve all memorials located in the capital. The statue will be 28 feet tall. Early artist renderings that were approved by Congress showed King emerging organically from the granite stone, The Post reported.

And that seems to be the commission’s objection now. King is presented as an anatomically correct figure made from granite, not oozing from it.

Chief architect Ed Jackson Jr. said, “Deliberately we chose an image of Dr. King when he is standing in front of his desk with his arms folded.

“We were hoping to give an image of Dr. King that was thoughtful, that … projected an image of someone who is really wanting America to give serious thought to the information and ideas that he wanted to pass on to us in his lifetime,” Jackson told the commission last month, according to The Post.

King was thoughtful and resolute. The mere fact he wanted change was confrontational to some who lived during his time. His message was directly opposed to the prevailing politics of his time, a politics of either promoting or ignoring inequality. He spent a lot of time leading marches and sometimes just standing still. The photo of the model statue suggests that. It takes a lot more courage to stand up unarmed than it does to go in with guns blazing. When one considers that King often stood unarmed against armies, the statue takes on added significance.

Let the artist move forward as he sees fit. And let the people decide for themselves.

Freedom of thought and action within the law were hallmarks of King’s life and continue to be his legacy. If he were alive today, he would probably prefer that people spend time spreading his messages of freedom and hope than arguing over the look on his face.

— Young is a Register-Herald columnist. E-mail: ynerissa@verizon.net

© 2008 by Nerissa Young