Art In My View: September 2014

Many of us have visited traditional well known monuments and memorials around the country. Awe inspiring and thought provoking they are.

Recently I happened to come across a photo of a memorial I had never seen nor heard of, in Bosnia Herzegovina of all places. The striking beauty of this memorial to WWII made me wonder what other monuments are out there that I've never heard of.

Whether you see these stainless steel sculptures as wings or weapons, they are stunning on Omaha Beach in France, commemorating the Battle of Normandy in WWII.

Les Braves by Anilore Ban, 2004

In 2005 the city of Berlin installed a 4.7 acre memorial to the Jewish people who perished in the Holocaust. It contains 2,711 concrete slabs of various dimensions.

by Peter Eisenman & Buro Happold

In the 18th & 19th centuries, there were more slaves held in the Caribbean islands than in North America. This undersea memorial off the coast of Grenada commemorates the souls of living slaves thrown overboard from over crowded ships.

by Jason Decaires Taylor

This bold interpretation of the image of writer, orator, and statesman Frederick Douglass is found in Baltimore. Although it does remind me of the giant head in the 1974 science fiction movie, Zardoz, I do admire it.

by Marc Andre Robinson, 2006

I didn't know we had a stunning memorial to the Korean War in Washington D.C. There are 19 of these statues patrolling through the grounds.

by Frank Gaylord, 1995

This steel sculpture of a miner commemorates those lost in a mining disaster in Wales.

The Guardian, by Sebastien Boyesen

CNN called this one of the ugliest monuments in the world, found in Belarus. I call it one of the scariest. It is called Valour, commemorating WWII bravery.

In 1997 an innovative memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt was dedicated. This part of the memorial park commemorates the Great Depression that he strove so hard to get America out of.

Breadline, by George Segal

Well, I didn't know where movie director James Cameron got his inspiration for the famous ship's bow "flying" scene for his movie, Titanic. Now I know. This Women's Titanic Memorial was built with donated funds from thousands of women in 1918, to honor the men who sacrificed their lives on the Titanic so that women and children could be saved.

In Washington D.C., by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

Dublin, Ireland hosts this moving memorial to the Great Potato Famine.

by Rowan Gillespi, 1997

Some that I admire most:

Under "construction" since 1948 in South Dakota, this ode to Chief Crazy Horse of the Sioux was begun by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski. His wife Ruth and their children have continued since his death, and have finally completed the face. I saw this as a child, and at that time it just looked like a vague notch in the mountain. When completed it could be the largest sculpture on earth.

Monument to the late Martin Luther King Jr., in Washington D.C.

by Lei Yixin, 2011

The Vietnam War Memorial Wall and Statues

by 21 year old Maya Lin, 1982

Three Servicemen, by Frederick Hart, 1984

Vietnam Nurse Memorial, by Glenna Goodacre

The September 11 Memorial in NYC

design by Michael Arad & Handel Architects, 2011

And now for BOOBY PRIZES:

Sculptor Robert Berks' depictions of Albert Einstein, Mr. Rogers, and JFK.

1979, at the National Academy of Sciences

2009, in Pittsburg, PA

at the Kennedy Center for the Arts

Beloved Pope John Paul II appears as a space alien in Rome.

by Oliviero Rainaldi, 2011

Also in science fiction mode is MLK in Toledo, Ohio.

"Radiance", by Costancia Gaffeney & Will Clay

The prize for the most underwhelming monument goes to Mobridge, South Dakota, where the great Chief Sitting Bull may or may not be buried.

by Korczak Ziolkowski, 1953

To finish off, this is not a monument, but it drives me crazy every time I see it in the background on the tv news. The White House North Lawn Fountain. Insanely generic. It looks like a beverage coaster filled with water.Sometimes they try to hide it with flowers.

But getting back to the great monuments, we give thanks to those artists that have produced these mega installations and forever touched our hearts and souls.

We've all done it, if only as children to craft a memento for our dear mothers. Working with clay is a primal, sensual, messy endeavor which can have a wonderful outcome.

by young Sean Davis circa 1990

And hilariously, we all wished we were potters in 1990, thanks to Hollywood.

But more seriously, working with clay is as old as the dawn of humans, and amazingly, an ancient ceramic fertility figure from 27,000-20,000 BC was unearthed in the Czech Republic. A figure like this would not exactly be revered in today's society, but at that time, reproducing was everything.

The Venus of Dolni Vestonice

Ceramic arts evolved with the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Greeks, for not only idolatry, but utility.

Egyptian vase, 5,000-3,000 BC

Mesopotamian prayer figure, 2,600 BC

Greek amphora, 520 BC

China was the first to develop and refine the use of fine porcelain clay.

Song Dynasty, 960-1279

Ming Dynasty, 1572-1620

The original North Americans produced interesting ceramic pieces prior to the arrival of Columbus.

from Mexico

from the American Southwest

The English became obsessed with porcelain in the 19th century, taking delicacy to its limits.

Utility was the word at that time as America was expanding westward.

But for me, my love affair with ceramics began in the 1970's, wandering through hippy craft fairs, and spending hours browsing through discount seconds pottery at Laguna Beach's Pottery Shack on Pacific Coast Highway.

In 1979, feminist artist Judy Chicago exhibited the most massive and unusual use of ceramics for a fine art project that I have ever seen. The piece,The Dinner Party, took years and multitudes of women to produce. It was a massive table setting honoring women from both mythology and history. Thirty nine place settings graced a triangular table that was 48 feet per side, resting upon a tile floor of 999 tiles, each honoring a woman of history. At its debut showing in San Francisco, there was a line of people out the door of the museum waiting to view the installation. When I was finally able to view it, the beauty and holiness of the installation was almost overwhelming.

Shortly thereafter, in 1981, Bay Area ceramic sculptor Robert Arneson (1930-1992), confirmed his irreverent reputation when he delivered his commissioned piece to the city of San Francisco in memory of assassinated mayor George Moscone. Arneson's favorite subject was himself though. He remains one of my favorites.

I do have a small collection of ceramics, but oh, if I only had the space and funds, I would be patronizing the studios of some of these local ceramic artists.