It is good to see an artist with actual talent these days. I believe most of this controversy is because the artist chosen was Chinese.
Posted on 12/06/2007 4:25:56 PM PST by flowerplough
"Even a Chinese critic said the design looked like a very big Chinese black man."
Lei's sculptures of one particular Chinese man — Mao Zedong – are also at issue. The idea that an artist who has created memorials to someone who has killed and imprisoned millions would be the one to create the most important sculpture to date of King, has some people reeling.
Harry Johnson, the head of the MLK memorial foundation, says that critics are ignoring the real reasons that Lei was chosen.
"I think it's their right to voice their opinion. I respect their right, number one. But number two, I don't think they have all the facts on Lei and why he was chosen," Johnson says.
The design committee chose Lei because there was no African-American sculptor who could do a 30-foot statue, specifically in granite, Johnson says.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
It is good to see an artist with actual talent these days. I believe most of this controversy is because the artist chosen was Chinese.
what’s wrong with that? MLK was a big supporter of communism.
listening to some of MLK’s later speeches is very disturbing.
That is hilarious! It looks like he’s single-handedly trying to hold off a mudslide. And the Chinese suit, hahaha!
That looks like a very angry Eddie Murphy.
Has Eddie Murphy ever been angry a day in his life?
NPR has two photos for our comparison in their enlargement, and they helped me to see the complaintants’ point. Looks to me like statue’s face is too short, jaw and forehead too squared, lips too thin, ears flattened, etc.
Too much lead paint. Send it back.
>>>”Even a Chinese critic said the design looked like a very big Chinese black man.”
Tiger Woods, is that you?
I met Martin Luther King twice, face to face. That is not the man I met.
The challenge with artists is they always create through their own perspective, what they know. If the artist is Chinese, he was probably trained and grew up drawing distinctly Chinese faces, and thus, it will come through in his art. I would bet it is unintentional. I still believe it is a brilliant piece of art.
I can see your point., The resemblence could be closer,,,and more negroid. I like the concept, though. But this is the usual stuff. I hope it doesn’t go the war that the WWII memorial went. I find it disappointing, and all because politics got in the way.
“MLK was a big supporter of communism.”
Something people aren’t aware of..
(Sir,,”Can you tell me where MLK Parkway is?”
No problem,,”Right next to James Earl Ray Drive..”)
The left side looks pretty good. The front view could use some work. And he put on some weight after that ‘1960’ photo, which I would have dated somewhat earlier.
Sadly, our nation has slid ever more rapdily towards the Socialist hellhole he envisioned.
related thread (from the SF Chronicle a couple of days ago, not a dup):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1931748/posts
I’d have to agree. MLK’s face was very handsome and had some edges. There is too much roundness in this statue. The scale seems a tad off also re: the head.
But hey, snappy lapels!
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