Power Flows from the Barrel of a Sculptor’s Chisel
The new statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. opened on the National Mall yesterday, with much hoopla as well as with much controversy. It was sculpted by a Chinese artist named Lei Yixin, shown above with his prototype of the King statue.
Denver based artist Ed Dwight, who was on the planning committee for the King memorial, was anything but happy. Dr. King, Dwight said, “would be turning over in his grave if he knew that the artist who sculpted King was from a Communist country.” Others added that they thought King looked confrontational, and that his face looked Asian rather than American.
One thing struck me as I looked at the photos of the King Memorial. Having toured China, and having seen scores of huge Mao statues still on display throughout the country, I immediately thought that the King Memorial looks very similar to all those giant Mao statues glorifying the “Great Helmsman” in the People’s Republic of China.
See here for yourself in the following two examples, and look closely at the face of Mao and compare it to that of Dr. King:
The so-called civil rights movement is just another factor in the downfall of America, Martin Luther King was an adulterous hypocrite and left-wing loonie.
Most white people resent the fact their local highway or airport or other outstanding infrastructure had to be renamed in this clown’s honor, not to mention the forced national holiday: instead of honoring the founders and true patriots the nation is forced by the communist elites to honor this nobody. Now after affirmative action and other diversity nonsense has led to another black nobody polluting the White House, and bringing America to its knees, we still see the American people doing nothing about it. The American people are deluded if they think a 2012 Presidential Election is going to be their great white hope.
Wally, Auckland, New Zealand.
I find this and other comments distressing. MLK Jr.’s civil rights agenda was diverted and co-opted by black liberation theology and its black supremacist adherents. But don’t blame MLK Jr. or his predecessor Ralph Bunche: see http://clarespark.com/2009/10/31/the-offing-of-martin-luther-king-jr-and-ralph-bunche/. WASP elites and their willing black opportunists did the dirty deed, hoping to co-opt trouble from below. See also http://clarespark.com/2010/07/18/white-elite-enabling-of-black-power/.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was not a violent revolutionary. Still, he was a committed socialist who was dropping in popularity when assassinated. King was turned into a dead martyr—and therefore was much more useful to left-wing agitators. This man unintentionally did enormous damage. I consider King as one of the most destructive individuals in American history. He advocated on behalf of many of the wealth redistribution schemes that eventually became the law of the land. King also believed in affirmative action “remedies” contrary to popular opinion. And yes, he accomplished a lot of good in the Old South. The severe harm occurred when he increasingly shifted his efforts to the northern areas of the country. Do I know what I am talking about? The heck with me. One merely needs to read two books: David Garrow’s, Bearing the Cross, and MLK’s own words in The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson, ed.
I didn’t know that the Klan had gotten as far as New Zealand. That’s sad…
The Klan has not gotten to New Zealand, but the socialists/Marxists have! Try the New Zeal Blog.
that was an ignorant remark about the Klan.
The Klan is an ignorant remark about everything.
I hope someone at PJM will take down (i.e., delete) this despicable post by “Wally.” I’ve been to Auckland, NZ and found the people I met to be very different from “Wally.” He sounds as if he’s channeling J. Edgar Hoover. I wonder if he’s wearing similar clothes to those Mr. Hoover favored in private.
This is deeply offensive. My junior high school was re-named after Dr. King’s assassination and I (a white person) am honored that my alma mater made this decision.
Wally, you know nothing of Dr. King or of the highest esteem in which he will always be held by his countrymen regardless of their color, religion or anything else.
Sometimes the view from afar is the truest view. Yet, the denizens of PJM have become so politically correct, they cannot even entertain any dissent. If you despise this, why still would you censor it? Cannot your counter-arguments stand the light of day? Wally’s facts are beyond question. I dare say that he says nothing that is not, in some way, the absolute truth. Factually speaking.
It is a terrible thing to censor. The right to speak is the ultimate expression of human liberty. Even before being put to death, the convict has that right, though he may well speak gibberish or nonsense, and we listen. If PJM stands for anything, it is that every voice should be heard. Ridicule, if you will, but hear the voices.
MLK was a man, no more, no less. He was not God, although many felt he spoke for Him. He was an adulterer, a problem which plagues the black community more than any. He created strife, where there was none, for his benefit.
Whether these things were good or bad, is for posterity to decide. I happen to think he was a great man. But he was just a man. Pandering to blacks has lead to treating them like children. This has not helped. The once proud black people who held good jobs equally with their white counterparts, has disappeared, because we have disincentivised them for work. Now they would rather make a living selling illegal drugs, stealing, and all the other proclivities of the current black situation. They have descended, not ascended, since Dr. King. Today, if we judged them on their character, they would rather we judged them by their skin color.
Beware the censor. He is the harbinger of misery. Your own ox might be next to be gored.
Anyone who calls for censorship is an enemy of our freedom and an enemy of our Constitutional Republic.
Agreed, censorship sucks.
I have to say I’m glad that I have the right to call Wally a racist pig. Which of course he is.
yay freedom!
Then the writer needs to look a little further into “Dr.” King’s background. And while he’s at it, look into Rosa Parks too. The Maoist imagery isn’t far off.
Yep. I wish David Thompson was still posting here, he really opened my eyes about MICHAEL King.
Any one have some links to real information about Dr.King?
I remember when allegations of his adultery were brushed off as “racial slurs”.
I guess they knew it was true all along and hoped it would either die out or they could delay the truth for so long it would be less of a blow.
Google “he Beast As Saint: The Truth About Martin Luther King Jr.”
It’s a very informative video on youtube.
Google “the Beast As Saint: The Truth About Martin Luther King Jr.”
It’s a very informative video on youtube.
– gotta pay a royalty to quote from his speeches…
I made the Mao connection at first glance without knowing the artist’s background. The local news site that I posted my comment on stating the connection apparently didn’t like it and it wasn’t published.
Denver based artist Ed Dwight, who was on the planning committee for the King memorial, was anything but happy. Dr. King, Dwight said, “would be turning over in his grave if he knew that the artist who sculpted King was from a Communist country.” Others added that they thought King looked confrontational, and that his face looked Asian rather than American.
So why did Ed Dwight and his fellow planning committee members hire Lei Yixin if they didn’t like his work? Did they not research the artist before they hired him? Did they not vet his scale model of the statue before giving him the go-ahead to build the final statue?
Why does the prototype of the statue look better than the statue itself? The prototype of the statue at least looks more like King than the final version. And the final version does look more Asian than Dr. King. Who’s bright idea was this? The final version does not look like Mao, but it sure doesn’t look like King, either. I don’t think this is what people had in mind when they think of Dr. King, nor should it be. We couldn’t find an American artist who could do this? Now THAT is sad.
Martin Luther King was a southern preacher who was asked, then because of his generous middle class lifestyle, questioned his right to speak for the poor, but was ultimately convinced that his education and profound ability to impact an audience made him a perfect leader for the civil rights movement. Because Dr. King was a minister (in those days) he was not allowed to have much of a political agenda or he could loose his job. He spoke from the heart. And even predicted his own death knowing it would be before any civil rights legislation would be passed. He received hundreds if not thousand of death threats along the way. Yet he kept marching and was killed while attempting to help sanitation workers receive equal wages. Now does this sound like some left-wing radical or a man who gave his life for the good of man kind. Oh, did I not mention the fact that he prevented a civil war. And by the way, you know a lot those civil rights that we all enjoy today can be directly traced to Martin Luther King. But there is something I have learned about many white people. And it is that they are so evil that they believe evil is good. And another thing worth mentioning is that fact that Dr. King like many African people truly does have a Asian eyes and or features. And as a matter of fact he is lot more Asian than most Chinese and Japanese. The light skin people of China and Japan look more Mongolian that Asian. It is well recorded that all the original people of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Phillipines, etc. Were Pymie African types. And little known fact is that Martin Luther King was very short similar to the Pymie. Read your history before you speak my friends.
Where’s the claims for “RAAASSSSSIIZZM?
The sculptor should have been black!
The King family approved this?
Was this a chisel ready job?
The monument is a hideous monstrosity with a deep totalitarian vibe. I think it’s perfect!
we have an outdoor mosque in shanksville pa and a mao statue in dc. its like the ruling class doesn’t like this country.
“The King family approved this?”
Anything for a buck.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/king_monument_to_greed_4DTe3bj9QcHd7Y2Hpvmp1O
The stone is all white. I call racism.
Cool, now real Americans, Black and White, have a statue on the Mall we can “Box”… like the naacp did George Washington. Up yours marxist racist.
Mr. Radosh, you are no more surprised at the choice of this sculptor than I am. Dr. King was, early on, appropriated as an icon for the Socialist Democrats, regarding his message as Social Justice rather than Unity and Brotherhood. That the artist’s name is exotically foreign sends a frizzon down the multidiversified Socialist leg.
I also perceive another likeness, and a hot prospect for Comrade Le; he can just run down to Venezuela and pick up a few easy reals. with minimum of tweeking, for a statue of Hugo Chavez.
Not too far from this, is it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barack_Obama_Hope_poster.jpg
I frankly am a bit confused by all of this. The statue looks vaguely like Dr. King, and the confrontational aspect of the statue seems appropriate…the man spent most of his life confronting racism, and as witness some of the messages here he still does. The Communist aspect of the thing is mystifying to me…they couldn’t find an *American* artist to do this? My guess is that they didn’t think that would be avant-garde enough…they’re not communists, they’re just idiots…the marble used isn’t even American, believe it or not…
Simply hideous.
Here’s a story on NPR about Communists in the Civil Rights Movement:
“How ‘Communism’ Brought Racial Equality To The South”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123771194
That ugly statue’s face looks more like Lenin’s than anyone else. See for yourself, Google “Images” and “Lenin”. Note the cold eyes.
I will note that the party that enforced racist segregation laws was the Democrats.
Wilson segregated the federal government. Democrats voted down ‘anti-lynching’ laws.
I think Dr. King, Baptist preacher that he was, would be appalled at such a glorification of himself and his likeness being cast into a graven image.
I think the biggest mistake here is not recognizing that Martin Luther King was seen by his supporters as a Christian minister who preached racial equality and led massive, nonviolent protest marches to achieve it. This statue instead channels the Maoist vision of what a heroic “proletarian” leader should be — a strong bully eager to fight and ready to kill all those who oppose him. To be true to American history and the vision of Martin Luther King’s followers, the figure of Martin Luther King should be carrying a big, fat Christian bible — marked with a large cross and displayed prominently front and center. No statue honoring him and his followers can go far wrong if it prominently refers to his Christian roots, no matter what posture or facial expression the hired artist decides to use.
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and legacy were desecrated by the burning of cities all over the United States after his assassination. These were the handiwork of Stokely Carmichael, communist, who wanted to start racial warfare so that communists could seize power.
Martin Luther King, Jr. always sought peaceful solutions to problems, including the problem of government-sponsored racial inequality in the southern states. So the riots were completely in opposition to all he believed and worked for.
Note that Robert Kennedy was also assassinated later the same year – no riots then.
“..Stokely Carmichael, communist, who wanted to start racial warfare so that communists could seize power” In “Black Power – The Politics of Liberation in America”, Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton outlined the concept of Black Power as follows: “The goal of black self-determination and black self-identity is full participation in the decision-making process affecting the life of black people, and recognition of the virtues in themselves as black people.” In short: There might have been some communism-related ideas around but the goal was power for black people and not power for communists. “Black is beautiful” was one of the arguments of the Black Power movement. Concerning Martin Luther King, I agree with you. However, King might not have rejected an artist from a communist country. He tried to understand people and their arguments and ideas. He was a great American, perhaps one of the greatest.
It was no accident that this “artist” was chosen. If anyone thinks this was NOT diabolical you are woefully naive. This statue was MEANT to evoke precisely what it does: FEAR. It is hideous. It is cold, repulsive, fascistic and UNAMERICAN. And the ensuing commentary and debate will be exploited by those whose hearts lie with the goals and aims of fascist China: all those who find it to be grotesque will be called: raaaacist. This statue will keep on giving. Year after year, decade after decade, for generations to come. It is a monument to tyranny.
Awesome post, Betina!
Not Mao, but surely a dead ringer for a Lenin statue in the old USSR.
Dr. Shalit
It’s not just the statue that is “Made in China”. I understand the hundred-plus granite slabs were quarried and cut there as well.
As to the statue itself, those arms wrapped close to his chest don’t convey the spirit of one who “had a dream” that would embrace and would be embraced by all. Rather, it suggests “Great Leader”, and not in the Western sense.
Dr King died at the tender age of 39. When I was 39 I too was a left wing type. Give the man a break. Who knows how he would have evolved.
They should place this monument at the entrance to the Department of Justice as a symbol for the New Black Panther Party and their struggle against American Imperialism and undesirable voters.
So now; Does this “artist” begin his work on the Obama monument? Can’t wait!
Don’t work about the crummy sculpture. Like everything made in China, it will fall apart in no time.
Loved your post! Maybe they can post a warning sign: DON’T TOUCH. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS USED IN THE CREATION OF THIS MONSTROSITY.
The problem seems to be artistic scale. If you notice the picture of the artist with his smaller version it has a completely different effect (looking it in the eye) than viewing this same statue from its shoes looking up. The material is also different; brown granite vs white marble. Scale and material was obviously not taken into consideration (or maybe it was). A statue this size needs a building (like the Lincoln Memorial) to look right. Either that or it needed to be a sitting likeness (as per FDR Memorial) or it needed to be smaller.
Now whether or not the artist and his sponsors meant for this to have the effect it does is another question. However, I will say it doesn’t fit in with the other memorials on the mall and it does remind one of the style of ‘art’ used for Mao, Lenin, Saddam Hussein and other dictators in their national town squares. But, look at it this way, at least with this we might not have to put up with an Obama Memorial in the future and if we do it can be small enough to sit on King’s big toe, as it should.
The aesthetic problem is that he makes MLK into another “dear leader” like all those other communist-countries statues of their local mass murdering thug, because he is sculpturing in the “Soviet realism” style.
And I thought it was just me until I read all these posts. My first glance at this monstrosity elicited awful feelings of Mao, Lenin, Stalin, etc, and disgust that such a monument was allowed in our country and especially in the capitol city. It looks so Communist. And quarried in China and carved by a Chinese artist? What happened to using fine Italian marble and an American carver? Price I suppose…. A travesty all of it and a clear indication of the internal social rot so rife in the good old USofA these days. It should be tipped over and run through a rock crusher and used for rip rap in a river somewhere.
>>>>>Most white people resent the … forced national holiday…
I agree completely. Surely, if there is one thing true Americans REALLY HATE, it’s a day off.
All because of MLK, the bastard.
Sculpture? So … just another job that Americans are not willing to do? I agree it looks more like Lenin than Mao.
The real question is why the King Foundation gave the approval to this sculpture project of MLK by this Chinese artist and knowing full well of his past sculptures of Mao? The King Foundation is in the bed with Maoists.
Dr. Prof. Ron Radosh, the “ex-communist” turns art critic. Who knew?
Now he can form bonds of solidarity with all the racist, bigoted, right-wing lunatics which inhabit Pajama Media.
BTW, it is also time for a fine statue of Bayard Rustin in Washington, D.C. Two Socialists are better than one!
Are you really that wooden-headed or are you just having us on?
I hope Pajama Media readers enjoy the Washington Post’s excellent photgraphic tribute to Martin Luter King’s top strategist and organizer, Mr. Bayard Rustin.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-marchs-forgotten-man/2011/08/21/gIQASZAIVJ_gallery.html#photo=2
This copy of Mao statues are perfect for MLK, he is widely known for his plagiarism. MLK also known for his desire for Black Reparations, booty and Communist friends. The highest crime rates in the country are within a 2 mile proximity with MLK boulevards is his modern legacy.
Mr. Radosh: As you would remind us all here, the Chinese *people* are to be distinguished from their tyrannical government. That an artist in China has been using his gifts to make statues of Mao is only to say that he is using his talents to make a living– like every one of us– but is forced to do so in a milieu where his artistic freedom is sorely lacking. Think about how Shostakovich’s music practically bleeds under the force of the Soviet boot. Any artist in China is in a similar position: How close can she come to documenting life-as-it-really-is, without ending up in brutalized in a Laogai for the rest of her life?
I think it’s great that *somehow* a Chinese artist found the freedom to create something that celebrates a great American Christian devoted to the liberty of every one of us. That it looks like the statues he’s used to making is probably nothing more than the artist’s limitation (after all, he has a lot of practice and ingrained habits from his profession). I’m frankly surprised the ChiCom government allowed him to make this statue at all.
I don’t love the statue. I’m not even sure I like the idea of a statue to MLK in the first place– unless perhaps it would be like the Lincoln Memorial, with MLK’s words on the walls, bringing them to our memory. And just because MLK wasn’t a died-in-the-wool conservative doesn’t make his memory justifiably honored for the great good he did. That a Chinese artist somehow managed to get permission to make this piece seems like a mark of hope for those billion Chinese. May God do a great work to transform the Chinese government and culture, as He did for the American descendants of African slaves, in part through the vision imparted to us by Martin Luther King.
So it looks like Mao statues in China. What’s your point? How many master sculptures are out there with experience 1) creating national monument pieces 2) as a large-scale granite sculpture?
Also, you picked Ed Dwight as your voice of dissent?!? It sounds like Ed was hoping to get the contract, saying Lei is not black, “he doesn’t know how black people walk, how they stand, how their shoulders slope.”
When I first saw this sculpture I thought “this is SO African-American.” What I mean is that it is over the top praise beyond anything that is justified. The gigantic size of it is reminiscent of Egyptian sculptures of Pharoahs, mere men who were thought to be gods, and the demi-god status of totalitarian rulers. A real life-size monument would have been appropriate.
As for the over the top praising, I first noticed this years ago when, during commencement events at college, black parents and relatives yelled like crazy when their guy or gal walked across the stage,as if they had achieved something beyond all imagination. It was ridiculous, but unfortunately the habit spread to a general thing now where commencement events have become yahoo sessions. Not a good influence, in my opinion anyway.
The second picture looks like Charles Foster Kane before he trashes the room.
The Tribulations of Martin Luther King’s Memorial and Memory
The Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial just can’t catch a break.
Twenty-five years in the making, the $120 million, 30 foot statue set on 4 acres near the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin may have its official, opening day ceremonies spoiled by Hurricane Irene but if that were the only element to tarnish the festivities it would be a blessing to King’s memory and his admirers.
The fact the representation of King, eleven feet taller than the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, was incongruously placed on the National Mall as the only monument not memorializing an American president or our fallen soldiers wouldn’t dismay those admirers who would think that all very fitting and proper but other facts could and should dismay them.
For example, the sculpture makes him look more like a ticked-off, giant Buddha than a black revolutionary, which is understandable in view of another fact, that the 16 ton statue was carved out of Chinese granite by Lei Yixin, a master sculptor from China’s Yunan province who includes on his resume’ two renderings of the late Chinese dictator, Chairman Mao Zedong.
One would have thought that King’s family would have insisted on an African-American sculptor to reflect his heritage and labors on behalf of blacks in America but one would then be wrong. His son, Martin Luther King III, is very supportive and claims, ”This particular artist: he has done a good job.”
Some non-family members have disagreed and protested that he would be “turning over in his grave” if he knew the truth. (http://tgr.ph/qAzu0P)
Of course, the King family has a vested interest, in addition to the obvious, in the memorial.
Financing for the project came principally from fundraisers at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Monument Foundation which has paid over $832,000 to the King family . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5275)
Dr. Radosh feeds the extremists raw meat for their consumption. Just read the posts and the inflamitory rethoric against the great Martin Luther King. It is as if Radosh became the gate keeper for extremists of the right. Get over it wing nuts.
The sculpture isn’t going anywhere. All this acrimony will not produce a white bread American or Afro-American sculpture to placate your demands. Hundreds of thousands of people will come to DC to pay homage to Dr. King, at this statute. Get used to it.
Anti-civil rights and anti-King rethoric is a throw-back to an earlier era of bigotry, hate and disorder. We must endure all the name-calling: communist, violent revolutionary, womanizer, plagerist, Maoist, Leninist, Socialist Democrat, etc.etc.
Dr. Radosh has found his little niche in retirement and dottage and it isn’t pretty. In fact, he has become more ugly, divisive, shrill and hysterical as the years roll by. Maybe his stance against Liberalism helps him manage his mortgage payments more promptly.
….”Dr. Radosh has found his little niche in retirement and dottage and it isn’t pretty. In fact, he has become more ugly, divisive, shrill and hysterical as the years roll by. Maybe his stance against Liberalism helps him manage his mortgage payments more promptly.”
This silly statement (#41) should take a prize for adolescent-playground taunts and should be deleted by its knucle-dragging “Lawrence” author.
One would have thought that such a unique individual would have deserved a unique homage. This tired, worn-out form has been around the block. Puts me in mind of the Lawgiver statue in the original Planet Of The Apes.
I hate that thing! It is an insult to Dr. King’s memory. The Chinese sculptor made him look belligerent, angry and Oriental. And now we’re stuck with it forever, because the sculptor has already been paid and is laughing all the way to his Swiss bank.