Martin Luther King Jr. statue in Boston draws online mockery,

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

disdain

The road to online mockery is paved with good intentions.

On Friday, a collection of civic organizations unveiled a 22-foot-tall bronze statue in Boston Common, the nation’s oldest public park, honoring the relationship between the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. Sculptor Hank Willis Thomas found inspiration in a photograph of the civil rights pioneers embracing after King learned he had won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.

“This work is really about the capacity for each of us to be enveloped in love, and I feel enveloped in love every time I hear the names and see the faces of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King,” Thomas told the Boston Globe.

His work depicts four intertwined arms. From one angle, the limbs form a heart, representing the couple’s love. But much as Chicago’s landmark “Cloud Gate” sculpture quickly became known as “The Bean” for looking like, well, a giant bean, legions of amateur art critics aren’t seeing what Thomas intended.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/01/15/mlk-statue-boston-backlash/

Hard to see how that resembles King.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. The mockery is well deserved,

how the hell does this embody Martin Luther King Jr.?

If I were an AA, I would be highly offended by this statute, and to be perfectly transparent, I'm not an AA, I'm an ole white dude who is offended by this monstrosity..

[Amishman]

44. Totally agreed, it's absolutely terrible

Seriously, what were they thinking????

[mercuryblues]

2. from another angle it looks like a penis

[Ocelot II]

3. That's just weird, kind of grotesque.

[dflprincess]

4. This may replace the Irish Famine memorial

As the "most mocked and reviled public sculpture in Boston". (Per Sebastian Smee in the Boston Globe.)

[electric_blue68]

29. Ok I looked up that memorial. It's certainly shocking to see the emaciated, despairing

family.

I couldn't read all of each plaque, but in other text I read that the well off family going along their way we're The Irish that escaped to America.


I was surprised at that part of the piece since I learned later in my late young adulthood that the famine was partly exascerbated by England so I thought the well off family was English looking down on The Irish.

Why is it so despised?

[dflprincess]

31. It looks even worse if you see it in person

and, as a descendent of Famine survivors, I did not like it at all.

This is some of info from it's Wiki page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Irish_Famine_Memorial#:~:text=Although%20well%20received%20in%20Boston,reviled%20public%20sculpture%20in%20Boston%22.

The two groups represent two families, one starved and ragged owing to the deprivations of the famine, the other well-fed having found prosperity in America. It is said to emphasize the transformation from an "anxious immigrant" to a "future of freedom and opportunity" in America for the Irish, the first of a long line of immigrants to Boston and America. The sculptures are accompanied by eight narrative plaques. The memorial lies on Boston's Freedom Trail (across from the Old South Meeting House)and is visited by more than 3 million people per year....

..The statues and park were unveiled on June 28, 1998, to mark 150 years since the height of the Great Famine. Although well received in Boston at the time, the statues were criticized by Fintan O'Toole of the Irish Times who said they represented "pious cliches and dead conventions". In 2013, Sebastian Smee, art critic for The Boston Globe, called it "the most mocked and reviled public sculpture in Boston". Others have decried the monument as a commemoration of the accomplishments of Irish Americans rather than a memorial to the Famine.

I lean toward O'Toole's comment as well as the observation that it really doesn't memorialize the victims of the Famine.

On the other hand, there are a lot of people, including descendants of the Famine who do like.

[electric_blue68]

34. Thinking ...

I can't totaly speak to Fintan O'Toole's (of the Irish Times) that it "represented "pious cliches and dead conventions"."

What is actually cliché about showing a starving Irish family (it is the hard truth) that was more deliberately than not caused by the British/English government (if I understood what I read in more detail) not providing enough food aid - say by letting The Irish keep maybe some percentage more of the high quality foodstuffs they were sending to England (?Wales, and Scotland).

Perhaps there should have been a partly vertically screens, or screened housing so that it wouldn't be so glaring, and you'd still get glimpses. If the locals, visitors to that area wanted to fully experience it they could go into that space, and see it.
The fact that such screens, or "housing" would be there would be obvious (depend on how it'd be done) what the subject is.

I don't know what he means by "dead conventions".

As fast the whole thing from this except you shared:

"The two groups represent two families, one starved and ragged owing to the deprivations of the famine, the other well-fed having found prosperity in America. It is said to emphasize the transformation from an "anxious immigrant" to a "future of freedom and opportunity" in America for the Irish, the first of a long line of immigrants to Boston and America."

It certainly doesn't focus on the famine alone, nor Britain's role in it.
If that's what more people wanted - it certainly didn't achieve it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

If you haven't seen it in NYC there's a very poignant (beautifully done) Irish Hunger Memorial just a bit north of Brookfield Pl (World Financial Cntr). While I know the ruined cottage was from Ireland; I had forgotten that the soil, plants, stones were brought from Western Ireland. It was dedicated in Summer 2002. My mind was still on 9-11.

The memorial, designed collaboratively by artist Brian Tolle, landscape architect Gail Wittwer-Laird, and architecture firm 1100 Architect, is landscaped with stones, soil, and native vegetation transported from the western coast of Ireland — with stones from every Irish county.

An authentic Irish cottage from 19th century Carradoogan, in the parish of Attymass, County Mayo, belonged to the Slack family — and was deserted in the 1960s.[3] The Slack family donated the cottage to the memorial in "memory of all the Slack family members of previous generations who emigrated to America and fared well there."[3][4]

Having just checked it on the map (I visited it like ?20-21 yrs ago) it appears (and how I went in) you can only get into it through the upwardly inclined tunnel which is lined with text. You can see parts of it from the surround streets.

"The text includes some 110 quotations, including autobiographies, letters, oral traditions, parliamentary reports, poems, songs and statistics. The texts merge past and present accounts of famine and can be updated to respond to new hunger crises.May 14, 2009
https://macaulay.cuny.edu › articles"

[Captain Stern]

5. I may not know art.....

.......but I know what I hate.

[ColinC]

6. Abstract art isn't everybody's favorite

But like any art -when looked at with the right perspective and context, can be quite beautiful. This piece rests in the spot that King began a march of 20,000 people through the northeast to gain support for desegregating schools. It is also at the spot he met his wife on their first date, and frequented throughout their life. It represents the embrace they shared when he won the nobel peace prize.

It doesn't require an enormous amount of critical thinking to understanding why such a thing can be powerful, but it does requirea bit more than what strangers on the internet might be willing to entertain.

[Ferrets are Cool]

8. Great post!!!

[ColinC]

10. Thank you!

[Music Man]

22. Great post indeed.

I suspect if we didn't live in the era of internet snark, this wouldn't be mocked as it is. Besides, tastes change.

Hank Willis Thomas is an African-American, and I highly doubt he saw his work as some sort of slap in the face of Dr. King.

Here's the photo it is based on, if anyone wants context: https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1120w,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2023-01/230112-martin-luther-king-jr-coretta-ew-140p-7b61e4.jpg

[diehardblue]

48. This is the artist's vision.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/15/arts/design/martin-luther-king-jr-statue-boston-common.html

It is Dr. King hugging his wife.

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. Personally, I think it is a fabulous piece.

[48656c6c6f20]

9. I'm just glad another city has something more hideous

Than the Bean.

[electric_blue68]

13. I love The Bean. I need to see more views of this to have an opinion.

[48656c6c6f20]

19. This guy loves the Bean too

[electric_blue68]

23. Uh... Who's that?

[48656c6c6f20]

25. It's a carnival barker

I get the same feeling as I near the Bean. It's the entrance to the Carnival house of mirrors.

[electric_blue68]

26. Got it. I haven't seen it in person (visited Boston earlier on), but seen plenty of photos.

[Hekate]

11. I'm not going to "mock" the thing, but my response hasn't changed since yesterday....

Which is: what were they thinking?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. Which Coretta knew. It was their business.

[peppertree]

15. And his archenemy, who leaked his shortcomings to the press - he had some of his own, didn't he

[electric_blue68]

24. Oliphant! One of my favorite cartoonists back in the day!

[peppertree]

33. Same here! I love his mini-me at the bottom - who usually got the last word

Republican presidents weren't fond of him - though he didn't spare the rod when it came to Democrats either (especially Carter!).



I remember his once headlining a political cartoonists' conference in DC, in the '90s sometime, and talking about how he went about picturing each president in his mind.

"With Nixon," he noted, "it was definitely the jowls. Those jowls!"

"Some say that's where he hid the tapes!"

[electric_blue68]

35. Ha! (Nixon) I could only see his cartoons from time to time. Can't remember where I saw them....

I did buy his (?first) book of cartoons.
Will goggle where he was... - maaaaybe he was published in the NY Post before it became a RW rag. I certainly saw a lot of Herblock there. Maybe Time Magazine. (thinking out loud)

I didn't see alot of his later stuff. So I didn't see him much critisizing Dems, Carter etc.

(and look at that ERA cartoon! The Republicans didn't pay a high enough price for their effin' blocking sucess)

My mom was in Denver waaaay back for asthma treatment for a time. He was published out of Denver so I asked her to write him, and I got a autographed cartoon.
👍

Will google for more of his later works. 👍🙂

[peppertree]

37. Herblock! Another one of the greats - a little more old-school

Thanks for sharing that memory with your mom too. That's the stuff we take with us.

[electric_blue68]

38. YW. Oh, dear, look at poor Pres Jimmy Carter!

[peppertree]

39. Yeah - no one ever accused Carter of being a "great communicator"

Tip O'Neill once lamented at "all we could have gotten done, if Carter had had some of Reagan's luster and staff!"

But then, the world is full of irony.

[electric_blue68]

42. Ohhh, boy. Yeah, irony does come around at times! ...

I hated Ray-gun with his sort of "aw, shucks" persona.

Did you ever the see the SNL skit he's being his affable self while greeting a bunch of Girl Scouts. Then his staff ushers them out.

Suddenly this big g map of the world (or a section of it) rolls down on a wall of the Oval Office about 90° from his desk. I think he grabs a pointer and turning hard nosed started planning, or directing some war. (Contra related?) Have to google that!

Another story from me. 😁

So a dear long time friend of mine [though we lost touch w each other, but reunited after ?20 years when she found a letter of mine, and sent me a note - we connect by phone, and text now] her father was in the diplomatic core.

He was (I think) promoted to a full Ambassadorship (previously ? Assistant Ambassador) during Reagan's Admin.

As much as I detested Reagan we were walking down a Manhattan Street (probably in The Village or Soho somewhere) she hands to show me the 2 Official photos of Reagan shaking her father's hand in The he Oval Office.
I was kind of awed despite myself!

[peppertree]

46. You described him to a tee

A sweet old grandpa in public - but a trigger-happy, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later troublemaker behind closed doors. And I guess he was both.

He had Nancy cooing children with her "just say no" - while green-lighting the most massive drug-running operation ever approved by the U.S. government itself (!).

Iran-Contra? Iran was just 2% of the loot - the rest, as Ollie North knows so well, was cocaine. The crack cocaine epidemic - a direct result - killed thousands, and sunk hundreds of already blighted communities.

That said, you're right: he was president for 8 years - and certainly had his economic accomplishments (though I contend he owed those in part to Carter's popping the OPEC oil price bubble in '80).

It's always awe-inspiring to meet a former president, and even someone who worked directly for them. Like shaking hands with history itself.

[Dorian Gray]

16. I've seen some pictures

where it's looked silly and other's where it's appeared to be powerful. I think to judge it for myself, I'd have to see it in person.

But like a lot of new art works and architecture, what seems ridiculous now may become an accepted work of art in years to come.

[Dorian Gray]

17. Even MLK

was scorned and reviled by 75% of the population during his lifetime.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

18. that pic shows the best view of it, you can at least interpret two people hugging. Yeah, don't see

MLK in this.

[ColinC]

45. MLK and his wife are in the place not the sculpture

…where he led a march of 20,000 people and met his wife on their first date. Boston was a big part of Kings history, and that spot specifically has enormous meaning. The sculpture is just way of bringing that depth of history to light.

[2naSalit]

20. I like it.

Last edited Tue Jan 17, 2023, 11:43 PM - Edit history (1)

I first saw it with the photograph it is inspired by and copied from. Context helps.

It is taken from a photograph of Martin and Coretta in an embrace, this shows that quite interestingly, I think it's moving in a good way.

[Raine]

21. Ugh! 👎 nt

[Mr.Bill]

27. I like it.

But it has to be viewed in the context of the photo it was modeled after.

[DenaliDemocrat]

28. It's hideous

Seriously bad

[lpbk2713]

30. No.

That's not a fitting tribute to the memory of Dr and Ms King.
It could be anyone.

[UTUSN]

32. As well it should. "Artists" ain't sacrosanct. Many are just self-inflated jerks.

[KentuckyWoman]

36. It isn't my thing either

If the King family feels it a worthy memorial to him that is enough.

I saw the photo. I get it this abstract. My brain cannot look at that and envision Dr. And Mrs. King. .

[electric_blue68]

40. Now having seen more than one view (photo) of it... It's OK, not wonderful.

I read the Artist's Statement. I really liked that.
Maybe be it's one that truly has to be seen in person.

Maybe what should have been added by the low sitting wall was a metal "page" so to speak of the actual photo it was modeled on.


If the King Family is happy with it - then it's pretty fine with me.

[ColinC]

41. Imho it isn't the piece itself that makes it beautiful

But the depth of the symbolism partly in what it is portraying, and more importantly in the history and meaning of its location. That being where he led a march of 20,000 people, a place he frequented and met his wife on their first date.

[electric_blue68]

43. Yes, the big Civil Rights History, And his Own Pivotal Personal History imbue it w extra meaning

I think of him so much in The South - I didn't know he'd gone to Boston for very higher education!

[RobinA]

47. Not My Cup Of Tea

I saw a picture of it for the first time yesterday, along with the picture it came from. The picture was great, this sculpture, not so much. Disembodied arms with no context in sight. No.