MARTIN LUTHER KING AND OTHERS- GOOD AND BAD IN MODERN MONUMENTS

Dr Martin Luther King, by Nigel Boonham,.University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2017.

 I am  certain that  public sculpture is in a bad way in Britain. Almost without exception railway stations and public places are becoming infested with the trash which modern sculptors are producing. Whether it is a sentimental portrait of a well known middle-brow poet and architecture critic or a crass memorial to a battle from the Second World War, London in particular is being deluged with rubbish. But there are still exceptions which crop up now and again.

Dr Martin Luther King, by Nigel Boonham,.University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2017.

Nigel Boonham's sculpture of Martin Luther king was recently unveiled at the University of Newcastle to commemorate the visit which Dr King made in 1967 on the occasion when he was awarded an honorary degree.In its quality it is certainly an exception to the current trend.

The sculpture stands in a small, quiet courtyard and it has only a minimal plinth. The focus is on the Doctor in Dr King who stands, dignified, in academic dress, confronting you at the entrance to a building.He is leaning slightly backwards and the work is slightly larger than life size. The scale is appropriate to the small site. His thoughts are inscribed on the pavement surrounding the figure. This sculpture is the second by Boonham in Newcastle. His earlier figure of Cardinal Basil Hume stands outside the Roman Catholic Cathedral near the Central Station. Boonham is working very much in the tradition of figurative sculpture. in terms of conception and symbolism, But the modelling shows that it is of its time.The head is crisp and modern. Or should that be crisp and traditional?

It is interesting to note that Boonham was an apprentice of Oscar Nemon and learned his trade by hands on work. He is better than Nemon in many ways. He probably could not have obtained appropriate training in a British art school.

Boonham has really gone to town on the complications of academic dress, indeed he is on record as searching for someone to model the figure,gown,cap etc.He explained that he needed to work from photographs because the folds of  an academic gown change all the time even with the models slightest movement.He has made the academic dress work as a way of giving interesting form to the sculpture.It is quite convinvcing as the clothing of a human form.

Dr Martin Luther King, by Nigel Boonham,.University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2017.

Dr Martin Luther King, by Nigel Boonham,.University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2017.

As a portrait the modelling is bold and clear. As a likeness it often seems to show a good resemblance.  I am confident that Dalou would have recognised this to be the case. And here to set a standard, so to say, is Dalou's head of Delacroix which was made for the monument in the Luxembourg gardens. Let me remind you that makers of monuments usually do not get the chance to work from life. Not Boonham,not Dalou. But is both cases the modelling is clear and frank.

Dalou: Head of Delacroix.

I would like to compare these  works with the recent sculptures by Gillian Wearing in Birmingham and the new work which is to go in Parliament Square in London.They illustrate a somewhat different view of the idea of a public monument and how it is produced.To me it shows  the acceptance of mediocrity because; well, because nobody involved seemed to know any better.

An Ordinary Birmingham Family by G Wearing.

Ms Wearing chose the subjects to represent an ordinary Birmingham family.This seems to be the third in a series including, An ordinary Trentino Family, and an An Ordinary Danish Family.

Ms Wearing is of course a conceptual artist and the choice of two lone parents, single mothers was probably meant to be challenging. They are indeed ordinary Birmingham people with no claim to fame or national recognition.The only males are their young children.Conceptually that is fine by me. Why shouldn't ordinary folk be honoured just as much as the famous? There aren't many public sculptures in which one of the figures is pregnant.

As far as I can learn Ms Wearing, as a conceptual artist and is most unlikely to have had any training in  sculpture such as modelling the human form, visualising how to plan a figure for casting and so on. Perhaps she would not want it. Perhaps she doesn't think it necessary, because as far as I can learn the work was made in China by unnamed craftsmen-or women.

 My guess would be that photographs were sent to a firm which specialised in model making for the film world, or perhaps some organisation which is still able to produce work tableaux such as  communist propaganda used to require.Or perhaps there is some sculpture department in China carrying out this kind of work. You could of course use 3D computer apps such as filmmakers also use for 3D effects etc.This tableau, like Ms Wearing's other "Ordinaries" seems to me to have something of that kind of banality.

But as a sculpture it is seriously deficient in portrayal of form. Compared to Dalou or Boonham the Birmingham group is banality personified.The modelling of the clothes is blandly uninteresting.All garments seem to be made out of the same material. The boots and the skirt.The artist maybe a conceptualist but the visual intent is surely traditional. As photographs show it the group seems to be modelled out of lard.It is not frank and powerful-as in the Dalou head of Delacroix. It seems as if the conception is so powerful to the artist that nothing else matters.

 My thoughts on Ms Wearing's latest public sculpture-the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square can be found here.