An Eyesore for the National Mall
As a former Washingtonian, I've always been of mixed mind on the proliferation of new monuments and memorials on the National Mall in D.C. In one respect, it's a fitting way to keep a running tally of our national history; on the other hand, value is always at least partially a function of scarcity, and having too many of these things risks (A) diminishing their collective impact and (B) ruining the aesthetic of the mall, which possesses a stately sense of openness otherwise nearly impossible to find in the major cities of the Northeast Corridor (Central Park excepted).
Of all the proposed additions, the worst may be the new Dwight Eisenhower Memorial -- not because Ike is unworthy, but because the design (at right) is such a bad fit both visually and historically. The designs, according to the Daily Caller, "call for a life-size statue of a barefoot, seven-year-old Ike surrounded by eight-story-tall pillars. The pillars hold up basketball court-sized steel mesh tapestries that show images of barren Kansas plains."
Amongst other anxieties, opponents are concerned that the mesh will be a magnet for debris, making the memorial look blighted in just a few years' time (personally, I'd also be a little put out by what sounds like a less-than-flattering visual representation of Kansas). There's also the bizarre choice of representing this paragon of American manhood as a boy (I'd argue that Eisenhower's adult accomplishments are far more significant than his childhood roots), and the troubling fact that the sculpture of pre-adolescent Eisenhower is set to be crafted by an artist who "is famous for his sculptures of group sex and naked children."
The man behind the plan is Frank Gehry, the renowned architect whose previous works include the Disney Concert Hall here in Los Angeles (see left) -- a project that answers the question "What would the Sydney Opera House look like if it was designed by somebody abusing mescaline?"
As you can see, Gehry has brought that same sensibility to the Eisenhower project, and the 34th president's family is none too happy about it. From the UK Daily Mail:
Susan Eisenhower, another granddaughter, said "Ike" is simply the wrong figure to memorialise with an avant-garde approach. He was a traditionalist and bewildered by modern art, she said.
In a 1962 speech at the dedication of his presidential library, Eisenhower spoke of modern art as "a piece of canvas that looks like a broken down tin lizzie (Model T Ford), loaded with paint, has been driven over it."
'Just about everybody on the mall had humble origins,' Susan Eisenhower said. "But you don't get to the mall because you had humble origins. You get to the mall because you did something for which the nation is grateful.'
This project has clearly become more about the artist than the subject. As such, it's time to scrap these plans and start from scratch. Eisenhower's legacy as a general and a president earned him the right to something more fitting. Personally, however, I'd be willing to give him the monument based solely on his views on modern art.
- Comment (27)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments :
Aug '10
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
From the looks of that conceptual drawing, the monument is meant to evoke the ugliness and brutalist nature of government office buildings.
Jul '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
What a great last sentence!
Jun '10
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Gehry’s Ghastly Eisenhower Memorial
By George Weigel
(National Review)
Excerpt:
It is not only history and aesthetics that are travestied in this fiasco. The Gehry design was chosen in a closed competition, which itself suggests that the fix was in for Frank Gehry from the beginning. Having seen his design for a new wing of the Corcoran Gallery of Art go unrealized, Gehry and his acolytes at the General Services Administration now seem determined to get a Gehry into monumental Washington, even if, in the process, they distort history with another postmodernist confection that speaks to no one outside their small, gnostic sect. Yet if the National Capital Planning Commission gives a favorable review to the Gehry design in February, the Eisenhower Memorial Commission may well seek to break ground immediately in order to create a fait accompli.
Nov '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Memorialize Ike for his childhood. Really?! How much more wussified and emasculated can we get?
To quote the Joker from one of the Batman movies, "This town needs an enema!"
Dec '10
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
That thing is uglier than cdor's avatar...
Mar '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Among new monuments, I think the WWII memorial is quite tastefully done.
But the picture of this memorial, by contrast, is too overpowering, too concrete-and-steel, too distant, too diminishing of the individual.
Most Washington DC architecture is on a human scale. Very few things tower confidently over you--but the few that do tower with purpose: they pose a challenge and question, and they ask us to step outside ourselves to pursue true greatness--while always keeping our traditions (the other visible monuments) in mind. They don't tyrannize over us, they elevate and ennoble us.
Ike is worthy of better than a child's statue. He commanded a world at war, and held it together under terrible times. Give him a statue in uniform: stalwart, calm, reserved. The pillars should undoubtedly be eliminated. They are as contrary to his temperament as post-moderism-run-amok would be.
Understatement is better than overstatement, and our Founders' favorite, Plutarch, teaches this.
Jun '10
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Based on what I've seen, very few people walking into this monstrosity would even know it was about Eisenhower, and they will certainly leave not having learned anything about him.
He was a great man on many levels; his childhood was probably pretty average.
It epitomizes post-modernism: there's no there there.
How about a statue of him wearing that short Ike jacket talking to members of the 101st Airborne the afternoon before D-Day?
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
The exact thing that I had in mind too.
Feb '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Troy Senik, Ed.: The exact thing that I had in mind too. · 1 minute ago
And forget the "life-size statue" of Ike at age 7. The one you're talking about should be much larger than life, like the man himself.
May '10
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Frank Gehry also designed the Springfield Opera House in an episode of the Simpsons. They built a perfectly normal, rectangular, building, and then smashed it with wrecking balls until it was a typical Gehry shape.
Jul '10
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Just another bit of the systematic degradation of history and culture. FDR in the wheelchair he hid from the public, the ridiculous Brolin send up of Reagan, anything by Oliver Stone, Thatcher portrayed in her dotage, the triumphant crescent facing Mecca in a Pennsylvania field, Project Cordoba at Ground Zero.
Does anyone here imagine Mitt Romney taking up such issues? Patricians will always allow the Plebes their little expressions. Vents their class anxieties, you see.
Feb '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Here's a non-English language clip from youtube.
Dec '10
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
I was thinking a statue of him in memorable presidential pose looking in a mirror reflecting him in uniform.
Aug '10
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Gehry is the darling of the deconstructionists. He is a rambling mess in person, heard him give a talk once about architecture and it was as orderly as the Disney appears.
About the artist is an understatement. Everything here screams po-mo Derrida. While many of us have seen that for what it is, the less lucid pseudointellectuals and liberal artistes still live in it's thrall, vindicating their every wrong move .
But then, being a white heteronormative oppressor, at least when talking, what do I know ?
Just what I like. As L'Enfant spins in his grave, Courbusier cries from above.
A statue of Ike in his jacket, ok, as long as it's 50ft tall. In place of the Dept of Energy which should be torn down.
Washington built the Vietnam memorial before the WWII memorial, what does that tell you ?
Edited on Jan 24 at 12:15pmMar '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
One slight correction: the planned memorial would (thankfully) not be located on the Mall, but rather south of the Mall on the backside of the National Air and Space Museum.
Still, I agree with Troy's first sentiment that monument inflation is slowly squeezing out the impact of the National Mall. I remember, during my first trip to Washington, only seeing three major memorials to past presidents. Now, a president has to die before taking the oath of office to not merit a five-acre open air museum between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. Soon, the rest of the mall will become yet another battleground for the competing versions of history put out by our two parties.
Aug '10
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
How a quickie poll here ?
Of the Vietnam, Korea, and WW II memorials, which one do you like the best ? The worst ?
For me, the Trinity is Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson and I wonder if everything else since is superfluous. The real war memorial is Arlington, where the proof lies.
Edited on Jan 24 at 12:46pmDec '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
That seems to be how he designs in real life too. (link)
"That is so stupid looking, it's great." - don't think so.
Edited on Jan 24 at 12:51pmApr '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
Ugh. Enough with the hideous conceptual crap already. Why can't we just memorialize someone with a statue or monument?
Apr '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
flownover: A statue of Ike in his jacket, ok, as long as it's 50ft tall. In place of the Dept of Energy which should be torn down.
Washington built the Vietnam memorial before the WWII memorial, what does that tell you ? · 12 minutes ago
Edited 11 minutes ago
These people hate heroism even more than they hate normality. They are both too healthily human. Small wonder that you always find them aligned with the human-hating environmentalists and feminists (see the Bethell and Sobran's Hive metaphor).
The Vietnam Veterans' memorial was built too soon, when the division and pain were still raw. So the smart people tried to bury the memorial in the Mall like a morbid piece of shrapnel in the national consciousness, too precarious to touch; they couldn't even bear to look at it. The veterans' groups protested the humiliation, and Frederick Hart's realistic The Three Soldiers was placed half a football field away, its three figures staring aghast as though, through the dust and mist swirling out from the last medevac chopper, they had caught a glimpse of the official monument.
Jun '11
Re: An Eyesore for the National Mall
$100 million bucks? In this economy?
I think the world of President Eisenhower but who just flips out a non-income producing $100 million dollar project in this environment?
What a disconnect.