MLK Monument Almost Made in China (well, next closest thing)

[lothar]

Yes I did doofus. It's not just the quote that's the problem. It's the fact that a guy who is used to portraying Mao is using the same style for MLK. Did you look at the picture? Are you telling me a sculptor doesn't control how his work looks?

Are you telling me the Chinese sculptors didn't show them a "mini" sample of the to be completed MLK statue?
Are you telling me these Black leaders didn't look at previous projects that were completed by these Chinese sculptors?
Are you telling me these Black leaders didn't approve of the design, but they felt like wasting money anyway so they allowed it?
Obviously they must have been pleased by their work which was why they selected them.

Yeah, these Chinese sculptors were randomly selected on the street of Beijing or Shanghai and just wokeup one day to build the statue without showing samples of their previous work or showing a mini MLK statue before completing this project.
The Black leaders didn't approve of the design of this project before it was built...They just told some random Chinese dude "Build a statue" and threw money up in the air.
I'm buying your idea.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

I don't like the looks of the statue, either. He looks like a mean guy.

 

[piasabird]

You would think they would find a nationally renown sculptor.

HERE is an example of a nice sculpture by a nationally renown artist (Glenna Goodacre) on a local community college where I work:

http://www.lc.edu/discover/spotligh...owItemID=aee65b07-e0c1-4494-aab8-345f9daa3843

Great care was given to the making of this statue. A young native american of the Sioux tribe was the model for the statue. I Met her in person, the day of the dedication. The Metal was donated by the local casting plant operated by the Olin Corp.

Here is another example of a bronze statue that is quite large. This statue sits on top of an elevated stone base. Pictures do not do it justice. It overlooks old Nauvoo and the Mississippi river. It sits in front of the new Nauvoo temple which is located at the same site as the old Nauvoo temple which was completed after the Death of Joseph Smith Jr.

http://www.corpany.com/Joseph_Smith_Hyrum_Nauvoo_S.html

This is something you have to see in person the large size of this bronze is impressive.

 

[Schadenfroh]

That does not bother me as much as the fact that the King family charged $800,000 for the rights to use his name and likeness in the memorial.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-04-17-king-memorial_N.htm

The family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has charged the foundation building a monument to the civil rights leader on the National Mall about $800,000 for the use of his words and image — an arrangement one leading scholar says King would have found offensive.

 

[soulcougher73]

But thats just me thinking about it and being all retarded.

Fixed that for you. You're not so bright are you?

 

[soulcougher73]

It is a pretty said state of affairs when a country cannot even make its own national monuments. Its as bad as having American Flags made in other countries. What a disgrace.

 

[modestninja]

The pose and expression on the statue look an awful lot like the picture on the cover of his autobiography to me:

http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-.../dp/0446676500

 

[Infohawk]

They just told some random Chinese dude "Build a statue" and threw money up in the air.
I'm buying your idea.

That wasn't my idea. At the same time it's obvious the sculptor has a huge influence on the outcome. Sculptors are artists, they are not laborers.

A former adviser for the memorial has accused the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation Inc. of promoting Lei to head artist in the hopes of getting a $25 million donation from the Chinese government to make up for a shortfall in funding. In a 13-page critique, Ed Dwight, a sculptor who has created seven King memorials, called Lei's proposed statue a "shrinking, shriveled inadequate personage."

There are even allegations the imported Chinese laborers aren't even being paid properly under US law. Everything about this is pathetic.

 

[Nintendesert]

The pose and expression on the statue look an awful lot like the picture on the cover of his autobiography to me:

http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-.../dp/0446676500

He's slightly leaning back it seems to me in the autobiography. He looks thoughtful. For whatever reason, perhaps the transition to granite, the MLK National monument simply looks mean. He looks angry instead of thoughtful.


And just do a google search for MLK national memorial and you'll see tons of clay and smaller renditions that the sculptor put together before starting the big project.

I don't think those look as mean either. I'm not sure what happened with the granite monument. Perhaps it's just the angles of the pictures. I'd have to go to Washington DC myself to see it firsthand.

 

[lothar]

That does not bother me as much as the fact that the King family charged $800,000 for the rights to use his name and likeness in the memorial.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-04-17-king-memorial_N.htm

Disgusting.

 

[lothar]

That wasn't my idea. At the same time it's obvious the sculptor has a huge influence on the outcome. Sculptors are artists, they are not laborers.



There are even allegations the imported Chinese laborers aren't even being paid properly under US law. Everything about this is pathetic.

I tend to agree with you...
However, I'm just letting you know that it's the foundation that awarded him the contract, so they are the ones mostly and ultimately responsible.
A sculptor can't award himself a contract. A sculptor can't pay himself money for a completed project.

Why didn't they supervise this project all the way? I have people working on our house back home and I will be there for the next 2 weeks monitoring and supervising them.
Was this statue built in China and then shipped overseas to the US? That is the only valid explanation for why the foundation didn't completely supervise this project.

 

[iGas]

 

[Infohawk]

He looks angry / smug. And the statute really looks like a communist style piece which makes sense since that's the sculptor's MO.

 

[woolfe9999]

I think the statue is fine, but American national monuments should be crafted by Americans.

 

[Schadenfroh]

***MLK Pics*

The statue does not closely resemble MLK, IMO...

BTW, I hope you are ready to pay for each use of MLK's likeness...

 

[iGas]

The statue does not closely resemble MLK, IMO...

BTW, I hope you are ready to pay for each use of MLK's likeness...

I have to agree that the sculpture doesn't look like MLK, but more like a Chinese rendition of their Emperor/warrior in tacky Chinese movies.

However, I'm not going to pay a dime to the Chinese for using MLK likeness, because piracy is okay by Chinese standard.

 

[gotsmack]

That wasn't my idea. At the same time it's obvious the sculptor has a huge influence on the outcome. Sculptors are artists, they are not laborers.

Disagree.

Thats not how the Chinese do business. It's more like, you want me to reproduce this? Ok, cost is $XXXXX.

While they may not make a 100% reproduction, they make it "close enough" and "Pretty good considering what was paid for it".

So what you may see as a Chinese artist influencing the design, I see it as as a Chinese dude cutting corners and saying "Close enough".

I agree the MLK head doesn't look like MLK and I'm willing to bet that the Chinese guy who made that was thinking "Hmmmm.... I can spend $XXXXX making a new mold OR I can modify an existing mold for free"

 

[trenchfoot]

He's slightly leaning back it seems to me in the autobiography. He looks thoughtful. For whatever reason, perhaps the transition to granite, the MLK National monument simply looks mean. He looks angry instead of thoughtful.


And just do a google search for MLK national memorial and you'll see tons of clay and smaller renditions that the sculptor put together before starting the big project.

I don't think those look as mean either. I'm not sure what happened with the granite monument. Perhaps it's just the angles of the pictures. I'd have to go to Washington DC myself to see it firsthand.

I'm pretty sure it has everything to do with how the artwork is lighted. Because the piece is located outside, it will continuously look different as the sun changes its relative position.

The piece may be lighted up at night, If so, then I can assume the artist would take advantage of that and light up the piece to reflect his vision.

I think there's a good example of how lighting can dramatically change the "look" of a sculpture on the 'net irt how the seated Lincoln was lighted at the Lincoln Memorial to project a favorable appearance.

 

[bfdd]

what a terrible sculpture of MLK. nothing against the artist, i just think it came out as a poor representation of King.

 

[Throckmorton]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/08/martin-luther-king

That King's monumental likeness was chiseled from stone by an ace aesthetic hype man for Mao, a dictator responsible for " one of the most deadly mass killings of human history", suggests a couple things. First, and most obviously, it suggests that monuments like this one are pieces of propaganda, attempts to manipulate a state's citizens (or subjects, as the case may be) into parcelling out honour, reverence and esteem according to an "official" account of the country's history. This is a line of business most states are in, but it is not a line of business I think liberal states ought to be in, even if from time to time they happen to exalt worthy heroes, such as Martin Luther King. Second, not only is propaganda morally dubious, but it is almost always aesthetically repugnant. The "worker's-paradise seriousness" Mr Page rightly detects in Mr Lei's new work is a sign that the artist has no notable interest in his subjects, but is instead a master of achieving a certain cheap effect, a vacuous sublimity easily mistaken for awed reverence, by means of a formulaic, emotionally rote approach to monumentality. Mr Lei is not hired to offer his interpretation of a subject—to create a portrait of a real, complicated man which reflects the insight and judgment of his personal artistic genius. On the contrary, he is hired not to interpret, to apply the same psychologically dead and mendaciously indifferent treatment to all his subjects. Mr Lei is a political bullshit artist, and it shows. That Chinese white granite is especially durable is a stupid reason to get stuck with this kind of soulless stone agitprop.

 

[Throckmorton]

The statue looks like Juan Williams

 

[sm625]

Yeah but the guy who hired the chinamen probably made more money than the guys who actually did the work.