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Reaction to bronze sculpture of Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr. in Boston hasn't been good – and that's not bad for art that shatters conventions

Kristin Ann Hass, Professor of American Culture, University of Michigan, The Conversation on

Published in News & Features

Even the Eiffel Tower was considered an eyesore by high-minded Paris art critics, some of whom described it as no more than a railroad bridge turned on its side when it was finished in 1889.

Willis is no stranger to criticisms. In fact, he embraces it.

“My belief,” he told Time magazine in a January 2023 interview “is artists learn through critique. There’s things that we love that over time we get tired of, and there’s things that we’re not quite sure about at the beginning, but over time, we love.”

Such was the case in Philadelphia in 2017, when he unveiled his 8-foot-tall, 800-pound sculpture of an Afro pick topped with a clenched-fist, Black Power salute.

Officially called “All Power to All People,” the statue rests near Philadelphia City Hall on Thomas Paine Plaza and received initial rebukes but eventual praise.

But one crucial idea is missing from most of the criticisms of “The Embrace.”

In my view, memorials and monuments are not actually made to mark a shared history or to maintain the status quo, as some have argued. It’s my belief that the people who build and design them have a point they want to make in the world.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy had a vision in 1890 when it unveiled the sculpture of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee riding atop his horse Traveller in Richmond, Virginia.

 

And Thomas had his vision for “The Embrace.”

The magic of memorials and monuments is that they seem natural and eternal in our landscape but they are neither.

What Thomas does in “The Embrace” is ask us to see the Kings, simply yet powerfully, in a new light.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation is trustworthy news from experts, from an independent nonprofit. Try our free newsletters.

Read more:
Friday essay: taking a wrecking ball to monuments – contemporary art can ask what really needs tearing down

Why the case for the removal of Confederate memorials isn’t so clear-cut

Kristin Ann Hass does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.


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