A Historical Analysis

of the American Monument_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________The Function of Public Space

- Place for civic rituals

- Political space where common cultural values ideas are expressed

- The memorial is a key ingredient in the symbolic expression of cultural ideals

_________________________________________________The Issue of Consensus - In a democracy, the consensus needed to endorse a piece of

public art is very problematic

- Rarely can all constituents ever be pleased

- This problem was not faced by other societies with royalty, aristocrats or the church commissioning public art

- Today, many past monuments are taken down or renamed due to the presence of dissenting voices that were not heard when the monuments were constructed

- In addition, monuments are static entities, but memories or attitudes toward past events change

_________________________________________________The American Renaissance (1880-World War I)

-Escalation of public projects, in turn, escalation of public art

- Nearly all memorials commemorate figures of national importance

- Emergence of civil war memorials- The civil war provided a mythology of heroism, noble leaders and foot soldiers

- The dominant style was classical - Many American artists were trained abroad and were

indoctrinated into the classical style

The Washington Monument by Robert Mills 1885

The Puritan by Augustus Saint Gaudens 1881

The Minute Man by Daniel Chester French 1871-75

Examples of Various Civil War Memorials

Robert E. Lee J.E.B. Stuart

Stonewall Jackson

_________________________________________________

The Source of the Equestrian Statue_________________________________________________

Marcus Aurelius

Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch 1889-92_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________The Source: The Triumphal Arch

The Arch of Constantine

_________________________________________________The End of the American Renaissance Early 1900s

-A shift occurred from military memorials to the commemoration of a “traditional”American way of life

-Private interests become major patrons, for example, groups like The Daughters of the American Revolution, The Colonial Dames,The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities

- Such patrons feared new money, immigrants and new values

-Historical preservation and even creating replicas of what has already been destroyed become the main ways to memorialize the past

_________________________________________________Williamsburg

-A replica of a colonial town with careful editing

- Funded by Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin and John D. Rockefeller

Other examples of attempts to construct monuments that serve as symbols of European ancestry

Leaning Tower of Pisa in Niles, Illinois

The Parthenon in Nashville, TN

Stonehenge in Maryhill, Washington

Built by the railroad magnate Sam Hill as an anti-war memorial

The Problem of the Modern Monument after World War II

-The ambiguity surrounding which modern cultural ideals to express or if any consensus surrounding cultural values exists or ever has??

-The classical style of past monuments was and still is treated with skepticism

- For example, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt MemorialCommission in 1955 called for “a less dominant form than the Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington monuments”

-Due to controversy, the FDR memorial was not completed until 1997

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________The Presence of the Anti-Monument

Claes Oldenburg- sees common cultural values existing in mundane objects and consumer desires not national heroes or ideals which are the focus of the traditional monument

_________________________________________________The Presence of the Anti-Monument

_________________________________________________The Presence of the Anti-Monument

_________________________________________________The Presence of the Anti-Monument

_________________________________________________The Presence of the Anti-Monument

_________________________________________________The Presence of the Anti-Monument

The anti-fascist disappearing monument by Jochen & EstherGerz in Hamburg, Germany

It was unveiled in 1986 and vanished in 1993.

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________The new language or style of the modern monument??

It appears that Minimalism has emerged as an acceptable alternative to classicism.

For example . . .

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

_________________________________________________Oklahoma City Memorial

Back to Homepage