At some point in my book – you know, this book – I express my doubts about the likely quality of the then forthcoming statue of Princess Diana. Given the generally low standard of monumental sculpture in our time and the near impossibility of capturing the essence of Diana in any medium other than photography, there was no reason to be optimistic. However, the thing that was unveiled today has undershot even my lowest expectations. Oh dear, it is bad, bad, bad – not much better than the horrific Meeting Place statue that disfigures St Pancras station. Not wishing to give anyone nightmares, I shan't add any images to this post...
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Bernard Berenson wrote somewhere that the English were very good at effigies, but not at portraits. The quality of the effigies fell off somewhere about sixty years ago, I think. I thought of Berenson the one time I walked down Whitehall, passing well-done equestrian statues of undistinguished generals to arrive at a more recent, depressingly dumpy statue of Field Marshal Slim.
ReplyDeleteIf it's any comfort, the same ineptness is to be found in the US also. Compare the statues in any old traffic circle or square--some of men known chiefly to persistent readers of American history--competent if not great art, then look at the more recent statues of Martin Luther King, Jr., in West Potomac Park or the statue of Gandhi between Dupont and Sheridan Circles. There is a real falling-off.
Thanks George. Berenson certainly had a point – indeed the British have rarely excelled at any form of sculpture, and the best work is usually either by foreigners or Brits who have learned their craft abroad. The more recent decline in monumental sculpture seems to be part of a more general decline in skills (and taste) – portrait sculpture is, after all, very hard to do at all well. We must be grateful for the odd exception, e.g. the John Betjeman statue at St Pancras, which works perfectly.
DeleteYou're so clever - I've been trying to think what it reminds me of, and, of course, it is that station thing. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThere was a ghastly sculpture in Birmingham installed outside the new library (also ghastly) called 'A Real Birmingham Family'. It was quietly put into storage after three years and I pray that it will not reappear.
ReplyDeleteOh dear lord – yes, I've just found that on Google Images. Quite appalling, and in much the same way as the Diana statue and so many others.
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