MLK Statue: Larger Than Life, More to Fight Over
Twenty-eight feet tall and carved from Chinese granite, the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. planned for the National Mall in Washington could resist almost any attack but the one that came recently from the panel whose approval it needs to proceed.
The United States Commission of Fine Arts, which must sign off on every inch of the $100 million memorial, from typeface to tree variety to color scheme, said in a letter that “the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed sculpture recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries.”
In a flourish that the commission secretary now says he regrets, the letter also said that the statue made Dr. King look “confrontational.”
From the Washington Monument on, no memorial has been erected on the Mall without a bruising debate. But there is something about Dr. King that makes the simple act of commemoration a thicket of controversy.
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The United States Commission of Fine Arts, which must sign off on every inch of the $100 million memorial, from typeface to tree variety to color scheme, said in a letter that “the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed sculpture recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries.”
In a flourish that the commission secretary now says he regrets, the letter also said that the statue made Dr. King look “confrontational.”
From the Washington Monument on, no memorial has been erected on the Mall without a bruising debate. But there is something about Dr. King that makes the simple act of commemoration a thicket of controversy.