MLK Tribute Statue is Too “Confrontational”

by Latoya Peterson

Currently on the front page of the Washington Post:

The caption reads:

U.S. Panel Wants King Statue Altered
Unhappy with “confrontational” image, powerful federal arts commission wants Martin Luther King Jr. statue proposed for a memorial on the Tidal Basin reworked. (Photo: Lei Yixin)

The associated article about the project states:

A powerful federal arts commission is urging that the sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. proposed for a memorial on the Tidal Basin be reworked because it is too “confrontational” and reminiscent of political art in totalitarian states.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thinks “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,” commission secretary Thomas Luebke said in a letter in April.

By law, no project like the memorial can go forward without approval from the commission, the federal agency that advises the government on public design and aesthetics in the capital.

Comment at will.