King Memorial's Overcosts

On June 12, 2008 Harry E. Johnson, Sr., president of the foundation to build a national memorial on the National Mall told the Washington Post that the foundation "had raised $82 milliion of its goal of $100 million needed to complete and maintain the project."

Now the foundation has announced that it has raised $98.8 million and that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given $3 million in donations. BUT... and here's the catch, even with that donation... it's going to need another more money, that is an additional $20 million.  The reason:  "because of rising security, design and construction costs." Now that is strange because on June 12, 2008 Russell Berman wrote in "The New York Sun" that the revised design for the proposed statue "makes no changes to King's pose or facial expression."

Since 1,000 tons of granite have yet to be shipped to the U.S.A. from China for the sculptor to reassemble  on the National Mall... what security, design, and construction costs are involved? What has nearly $100 million been spent on for the last three years since ground was broken on the mall? How much is the Chinese sculptor being paid? How much is it going to cost to ship his work to this country? How does the MLK Foundation justify taking trips to Italy, China, and other countries to inspect granite? Why wasn't a national or international competition held for the statue of Dr. King as it was for the total design?  Who is providing oversight of this historically important project so many of  us - worldwide - really want to see become a reality on the Mall?  A private foundation raising millions of dollars for a four-acre monument on the Tidal Basin, public property, apparently doesn't have to answer to anyone about how funds are used.  But the well could soon run dry if the King family and the King Memorial Foundation are both seeking funds from the same corporations and groups.  Only time will tell.

FEDERAL COMMISSION CRITICIZES PROPOSED Martin Luther King, Jr. Statue

Under the headline "Unhappy with 'Confrontational' Image, U.S. Panel Wants King Statue Reworked (The Washington Post, 05-09-2008, page 1)... Michael Ruane reports that the seven-member U. S. Commission of Fine Arts thinks there is something wrong with the model of Dr. King being sculpted in China. The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial will be the last project on the National Mall in Washington, DC and the only one honoring a Black American. By law, as the Post points out, "no project like the memorial can go forward without approval from the commission" which advises the government on public design and aesthetics in the capital.

The Secretary of the Fine Arts Commission, Thomas E. Luebke, an architect sent a letter to the Martin Luther King National Memorial Project Foundation and the Regional Director of the National Park Service, National Capital Region (Joseph M. Lawler) on April 25, 2008. In that letter Luebke said that "the Commision members found that the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries." In other words, right now, Dr. King is being constructed to look like a political figure like Mao or some other dictator.

Because the Roma Design Group's original work approved by the Commission did not include Dr. King emerging gently out of a Stone of Hope, the Commission is now concerned that Dr. King is being pictured in a "confrontational" full-length pose and appears to be "affixed to the surface of the Stone of Hope." Using very strong words, the Commission wrote that "the proposed treatment of the sculpture - as the most iconographic and central element of the memorial to Dr. King - would be unfortunate and inappropriate as an expression of his legacy. We recommend strongly that the sculpture be reworked, both in form and modeling."



That sounds to this Blogger and other critics that the Commission wants CEO Harry Johnson and his group to start over. And that is exactly what thegibsonreport.blogspot.com has been calling for since the summer of 2007. Arguing that there were other problems besides the ethnicity of the chosen sculptor, this site noted FIVE FATAL FLAWS: (1) the selection process (flawed & biased); (2) a non-original model (sculptor is working from a picture, (3) historical inaccuracies (imagine a Babe Ruth statue swinging with the opposite hand). Such is the case when the Chinese sculptor takes "artistic license" by flipping the picture/negative so Dr. King could use his left hand to conveniently point to writing on one side of the stone rather than the other; (4) using a pose rejected by citizens in Rocky Mount, NC in 2003 (though Ohio sculptor Erik Blome correctly showed Dr. King holding a pen in his right-hand, citizens rejected the cross-armed pose because they said it was stiff and made Dr. King look arrogant). It should be noted that the statue was put in a warehouse and not initially put up as planned; (5) rejecting constructive criticism from professioral artists (earlier criticism from other sculptors and artistic advisors selected by the Memorial Foundation were booted or quit when they noted the Chinese sculptor's work looked more like a Communist leader than a spiritual leader).

There should be a congressional inquiry into the expensive outsourcing of such an important American project. The cost of sending 100 crates of granite to be assembled on the National Mall cut a whole lot of Americans out of work. We need to hear why the original Architect of Record was replaced with the Chinese sculptor that he had a hand in selecting to work under him.

Regardless of color, ethnicity, or religion... we all want Dr. King's memorial at the Tidal Basin to be an inspiring work of art. It is in that spirit that so many of us around the country have raised questions and concerns about questionable unilateral decisions about a national monument. Unlike the Statue of Liberty which was a gift, the King Memorial is this country's salute to an important man of non-violence.

It is our civic duty to voice serious concern, even if a project is privately funded, before the image of Dr. King is cast in granite in such a way that he looks like Eddie Murphy and assumes a stance that fails to capture the spirit of the drum major for peace. While the media typically looks for the sensational (a Chinese vs. Black sculptor), it is imperative that legislators and policy makers not get bogged down in that distraction.

Kudos to a federal panel for looking after the public interest and exercising its oversight duties.

The U. S. Commission on Fine Arts brilliantly captures the essence of the problem: Dr. King deserves better!

Hats Off to CFA for looking out for the interests of the American public.  Too bad CFA became too sensitive to the fact that the Commission is all White AND refused to make the MLK Memorial Foundation really accountable in the public interest.  In the end history will show that the CFA was right to object to an arrogant, confrontational depiction of Dr. King.

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King Monument Criticized Over Mistakes

 Cite www.thegibsonreport.blogspot.com or email Blogger: takingcareof1@hotmail.com

...What were they thinking? CEO Harry Johnson, the Executive Architect (Ed Jackson), MLK Project Manager (David Hamilton), the Alpha Fraternity, and other members of the Martin Luther King Jr National Memorial Project Foundation... are drawing unnecessary NEGATIVE attention to the National Mall project scheduled to open in 2009.

...Do we really need to hear the media debate the ethnic background of the person sculpting the King STONE OF HOPE monument? It's distracting and uncivil. It could have been avoided because the King Foundation had to know a similar debate was waged in 2003 when a North Carolina city (Rocky Mount) rejected a monument using the same proposed stance for their park. The complaints that kept the monument from being erected for more than three years, were the charges that the sculptor was White, Dr. King crossing his arms with legs apart made him look arrogant, and... that the sculpture did not look like Dr. King. Those are some of the complaints being heard about Lei's clay model of Dr. King in 2007. Some even say the model looks more like Eddie Murphy than the Atlanta preacher.

...The King Foundation certainly could have anticipated similar public reaction heard in Rocky Mount, North Carolina... when it deliberately decided not to look for stonecutters in this country or to have artists compete for the honor of working on a monument for Dr. King. From newspaper accounts in 2006 and again in February 2007, it was obvious that the fundraising leaders knew of such potential problems when Foundation CEO Harry Johnson said after the Chinese sculptor's 2007 presentation to some Foundation members that Lei Yixin's race should not be a factor in preventing him from building the sculpture for Dr. King. In other words, Lei Yixin, who doesn't speak English and is guaranteed an income for life from the Chinese government... was hand-picked by a group of brothers who had fought for more than ten years to have Dr. King honored on the National Mall. No one bothered to ask, evidently, whether the sculptor could also do "realistic" models? Certainly, no one from the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project required Master Sculptor Lei Yixin to render or interpret his clay model into granite before the fact. That and the obvious lack of a world-wide competition for the honor of sculpting Dr. King raises some, pardon the pun, red flags? That Lei Yixin was approached in June 2006 because he could, as Harry Johnson told the Washington Post (8-15-07), "cut stone" doesn't quite make sense, given the number of stonecutters in this country. The MLK Committee's subsequent trips to Italy and China to inspect granite for the Dr. King monument and only belatedly to Atlanta (2007) to observe granite for other parts of the project on the mall... must have been costly.

Not even the fact that Lei Yixin will end up shipping 100 crates from China to have the 30-foot granite monument of Dr. King reassembled on the mall has been a cause for concern at project headquarters. Let's hope the granite and extra personnel are all included in the $132,000 check the Foundation gave Lei Yixin earlier this year.

BUT... the real issue, I contend, is not the race/ethnicity of the sculptor but the PROCESS! In other words, Lei Yixin was not selected competitively; the process was neither open nor transparent. That's the same problem that plagued Rocky Mount, NC (2003) until the city where Dr. King said in 1962 - "Rocky Mount, I have a dream tonight..." finally held a more open process.

It also should not be ignored that... Lei Yixin was picked in 2006 because he could follow the then Sculptor of Record (Ed Dwight) and the Roma Design Group's 2004 designs for the STONE OF HOPE. The public really didn't have to know about the in-house fighting between the National Memorial Project team and the sculptor Ed Dwight who by 2007 had already designed hundreds of mini-models of Dr. King that were sent to major donors.

The media will continue to play the race card because African Americans are fussing with African Americans. BUT my research reveals that that is a major mistake because there are more serious problems with the National Mall project. As a researcher, former professor of social movements and investigative reporter, what I am going to reveal might well raise some serious questions about the $82 million already raised/spent for the King memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

For now... look closely above at which hand Dr. King uses to hold his pen in Lei Yixin's clay models and in the Roma Design Group's rendition below of the STONE OF HOPE and MOUNTAIN OF DESPAIR.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? Which hand is Dr. King using to hold his pen in the pictures below? Is it the same hand Dr. King raises at the 1963 March on Washington? you can see the picture in the Foundation's fundraising material on its website?

Pen in Left hand!


How do the above and Lei Yixin's models above DIFFER from these below?

(Pen in Right Hand)

These statues are by Illinois Sculptor Erik Blome.

Blome's 2003 model of Dr. King for Rocky Mount, NC has pen in RIGHT hand. But the stance met with resistance by Rocky Mount, North Carolina residents.

At this point it's obvious that Lei Yixin's clay models of Dr. King are wrong!

If he carves granite with Dr. King using the left hand to hold his pen... the sculptor will have produced a monument that is historically not correct.

These are FATAL FLAWS involving the MLK project.

WORTH REMEMBERING:

The issue is about more than whether an African American should sculpt an African American, isn't it?

Right Hand!

So the list of problems with MLK National Memorial is growing:  inaccurate inscriptions, producing an inaccurate 30-foot statue of Dr. King, failure to hold a national/international competition for a sculptor, moving drastically away from the original Roma Design, using granite from China rather than Georgia, incurring unnecessary expenses with trips to China, and giving away American jobs by OUTSOURCING the historic project to China.