More on the Eisenhower Monument Controversy

[bluedigger]

More on the Eisenhower Monument Controversy

The controversy over the Eisenhower Memorial is morphing into a classic Culture Wars battle. An entity that calls itself the National Civic Art Society has issued a 153-page attack on Frank Gehry's design for the memorial, which complains:

The Memorial's only statue of Eisenhower depicts him as a life-size barefoot young boy, a shrinky-dink tikey Ikey. It is a travesty that cuts a great man down to size. Giving Eisenhower the boy treatment would be unthinkable were Eisenhower around to defend himself.

The statue of Ike as a Kansas farmer-boy is sentimental kitsch. This Happy McMonument does not befit a statesman who defeated the Nazis and who preserved America's peace and prosperity. Leadership is not child's play.

The Memorial's titanic "columns" tower over the puny Ike statute. The result is a Leviathan Memorial swallowing a small-fry Eisenhower. The behemoth commemorates Gehry's ego, not Eisenhower's greatness and humility.

The Memorial's crooked-appearing "columns" and tangled "tapestries" do not befit Eisenhower's upright virtue.

Eisenhower would be disgusted at the planning and design of his Memorial. As he lamented in 1962, "What has happened to our concept of beauty and decency and morality?"

Not satisfied with attacking the design, they also try to smear both Geary himself:
In 2003, Gehry refused to help design a replacement for the Twin Towers since he was not offered enough money. That alone makes Gehry unworthy of Eisenhower, who exemplified selfless public service.

And the sculptor Geary chose to work on the barefoot boy sculpture:
The design of the boy Eisenhower statue is being advised by Charles Ray, an artist whose work sexualizes children and is obscene.

Eisenhower may have exemplified public service, but he also believed in capitalism, and do the people behind the NCAS really want to attack Geary for charging what the market will bear?

http://benedante.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-on-eisenhower-monument-controversy.html

Much more good background on the proposed memorial at the link. I wasn't even aware of the proposal.

[msongs]

1. is it all going to be made in china, like MLK's statue that looks kinda like Chairman Mao? nt

[bluedigger]

2. I don't know.

Heck, I didn't even know they were planning a monument before this morning, to say nothing of it being controversial.

[madrchsod]

4. who in the hell approved mlk`s statue?

yup it kinda looks like chairman mao

[madrchsod]

3. the more i think about it ....the barefoot boy is brilliant.

[bluedigger]

5. I thought the blog made a pretty good case for it.

[xtraxritical]

6. blah blah blah and no artists conceptualizaiton.

[bluedigger]

7. You couldn't go to the link?

I counted three images depicting a model of the proposal, as well as two designs from the group protesting the chosen artist.