May 12 2008
U.S. Commission on Fine Arts Says No to King Statue!
Well at last there is some oversight of the MLK National Memorial Project that’s being prepared for the National Mall. The selection process was tainted in 2007 when the job for sculpting Dr. King was outsourced to China. A national competition was never held like it was for the overall project when 900 applicants paid $95 each to compete.
Now the seven-member federal panel says the proposed model is “confrontational” BUT this site says it is also historically inaccurate because the Memorial Foundation is using a picture that has been flipped claiming “artistic license” so Dr. King’s hand will point in the direction the Foundation wants it to in order to capture Dr. King pointing to the promissory note. The problem is that the same cross-armed pose though captured correctly by Erik Blome was rejected by citizens of Rocky Mount, NC as being “too arrogant.”
Thank goodness questions have been raised on the Federal level about what should be an inspiring monument to a great American. Perhaps, it’s time for more of us to attend the June 19th public meeting at the U. S. Commission on Fine Arts and speak out about the process of getting a suitable artist for this great honor. Be there!!!
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Here’s an update on the MLK Statute for the National Mall. The Chief Architect for the project admitted in the Washington Post that a mistake had been made because the picture the artist used for sculptoring the leader had been reversed. Thus, Dr. King is shown using the wrong hand. The Solution, says Dr. Jackson, is to put a scroll in his hand, instead of a pen. Now that’s sloppy and just plain wrong. That’s like showing President Barack Obama signing an Executive Order using his right hand, when everyone knows, like Bill Clinton, he is LEFT handed. Doesn’t accuracy matter for the Drum Major for Peace?