"The Embrace"

Has Not Been Wholeheartedly Embraced
 
 "The Embrace" is a sculpture now found in Boston. It is pictured above and is over 20 feet tall. It can be viewed from another angle in the image below. 

   

  The statute is commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, and they are the ones embracing. The bronze sculpture is meant to represent the embrace pictured below when MLK won the Nobel Prize in 1964. 

  There are other angles from which the statue can be observed and many who have viewed it are not happy with any of them. Here is one example, which is perhaps safe to cite: 

“Given that I am not White, I am safe from ANY charges of racism for saying the MLK embrace statue is aesthetically unpleasant. The famous photo should have been a FULL statue of the couple and their embrace. What a huge swing and miss in honoring the Dr & Mrs King. SAD!” tweeted Boston Herald columnist Rasheed N. Walters."

Public Art Is Problematic
   There are two reasons why I noticed the dispute about the object in the Boston Common and it is a fitting way to end what has been a long "Black History Month." You will recall that there are quite a few posts on MM which involve statues. There are even some about statutes carved out of butter. Generally they are subjects about which there have been arguments, but those controversies have been political in nature. The statutes have been removed or destroyed because the person sculpted can no longer be tolerated. In this instance the debate is largely an aesthetic one. Given that I am White, I will not offer a view and simply provide some sources for you to use, so you can judge for yourself. 
   The second reason I noticed all of this is because of the sculptor. His name is Hank Willis Thomas. You may recall the story I told about another of his "Black Sculptures," which is now on private display in a back yard in Vancouver. If it was on public display, it would likely be problematic. 

Sources:

   Here is an 'official' account and more photos: "The Embrace" With Hank Willis Thomas," MASS

   "Martin Luther King Jr. Statue in Boston Draws Online Mockery, Disdain: The statue was inspired by a photograph of King and his wife, Coretta, embracing after he learned that he won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize," Travis M. Andrews, Washington Post, Jan. 15, 2023.

   "I Wanted to Love the New Boston MLK Statue. But It's Just Awkward: Hank Willis Thomas's Tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Has Polarized Opinion Everywhere," Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, Jan. 17, 2023.

Post Script:
    You are likely puzzled about the butter statues. There are two posts: "Butter" and "The Land of Cockaigne."

A Black Sculpture

    

   The Black sculpture pictured above was created by the Black sculptor, Hank Willis Thomas. It has travelled across the continent and been displayed in various museums and galleries. Here is another image from a different exhibition from a different perspective. 

The sculpture was purchased recently and now rests privately in the back garden of a home in Vancouver, British Columbia.

   Mr. Thomas is a very interesting multimedia artist who often deals with Black conceptual subjects. That makes sense since he spent a fair amount of time in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where his mother, Deborah Willis,  was employed as an art and photo historian. She is also interesting and a winner of a MacArthur Grant. She has her own Wikipedia entry, as does Mr. Thomas. They are both so interesting, I will leave for you at the bottom, some resources where their talents and interests are better described by others. 

   What I find interesting is the fact the source for the inspiration for the sculpture, now on the West Coast, is found on the East Coast. In fact, in a town very near the one in which I was raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 

   That town is Cambridge and the events that are now memorialized in that Black sculpture occurred in May of 1964. At that time, the Eastern Shore was still a segregated region and race relations were strained.  Alabama Gov. George Wallace was a presidential candidate and when he attempted to address a whites-only audience, things did not go well, as this headline indicates: "Racial Hotbed: Cambridge, MD: Wallace Visit Unleashes Race Riots in Cambridge:" Here is a partial account of what transpired. "Eleven integrationists were under arrest and two others hospitalized in the aftermath of a wild brick-throwing Negro street demonstration quelled by National Guard tear gas..." Guardsmen under the command of Col. Maurice Tawes, a distant cousin of Maryland Gov. J. Millard Tawes, at first tried to break up the demonstration by pulling some of the leaders from the group. But, that started a free-for-all among the Negroes and the soldiers. As a last measure, Tawes ordered tear gas bombs fired." 

   That report is from the Chicago Daily Defender, May 13, 1964. There had been other protests and riots and 'militia law' (a form of limited martial law) had been in place since the summer before. Two weeks later, this article appeared in the New York Times:"New Riot Erupts in Cambridge, MD: Four Guardsmen Hurt, One by Gunfire, as Negroes Are Dispensed With Gas," (May 26, 1964.)

   Above, I highlighted "pulled some leaders from the group." One of them was Clifford Vaughs, a black activist. 

Sources:
   There are many, starting with the Wikipedia entries for Mr. Thomas and Ms. Willis. His own website, has photos, illustrations and a lengthy CV and bibliography. His mother's is found here: Deb Willis. 
   Many articles about his exhibitions are easily found. See, for example, the one at Art Basel in Miami, and at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  He was even exhibited at the AGO -"Art in the Spotlight: Hank Willis Thomas," and the Globe and Mail published an article about him when he won the $50,000 Aimia/AGO Photography Prize for 2017. (by Brad Wheeler, Dec. 4, 2017.)
   For his early career see: "Artist Hank Willis Thomas and Gallerist Jack Shainman Share Their Story: The two friends look back on 15 years of collaborating," Hilarie M. Sheets, Galerie, April 6, 2020. 

   For another post about race and the Eastern Shore, see my account of the Last Lynching in Maryland. 

The Bonus: 
   A few years ago, we visited Crystal Bridges, deep in the Arkansas woods and you should go if you get a chance. I discussed the visit in Amazing Accomplishments and I also wrote about the fine library at Crystal Bridges in this post about Unexpected Libraries.