Posted Date: June 25, 2008

Panel Satisfied With Changes To King Statue

Staff Report
The Daily Voice

   WASHINGTON—The powerful Federal Arts Commission said it was satisfied with the modification  of the memorial statue of Martin Luther King Jr. during a recent meeting with members of the organization which has been seeking to built it in the naton's capital.
   Officials of the King Memorial Fund showed the panel renderings from the designer of the statute. He had smoothed away wrinkles in King's brow and reshaped the mouth to impart a hint of a smile.
Planners expect the memorial to be finished by spring 2010.
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, has the power to veto projects such as the King Memorial.
     A letter from the panel's secretary last month, to Memorial Fund officials, said the members did not like the designers' original work which depicted  King with his arms crossed, noting it was too "confrontational" and reminiscent of the socialist realist style popular in communist countries.
   Last year, the selection of a Chinese sculptor, Lei Yixin, drew complaints from people who thought an American should have been chosen.
    On June 20th, commission members reviewed illustrations of proposed changes to King's face and to the bottom and sides of the sculpture. Several said most of their concerns had been addressed.
   "I think that the improvements are very positive," said Earl A. Powell III, chair of the commission. "As a general concept, I'm very comfortable with it."
    No vote was taken and the remarks of commissioners are in effect an endorsement of the changes. Now the memorial's architects can proceed with a plaster model. At their meeting next month, commissioners also will review plans for other aspects of the memorial site in anticipation of the start of construction by the end of the year.
   In one of the more significant changes made by Ed Jackson Jr., the memorial's chief architect, the rough-hewn granite that will surround King has been moved forward a few inches. The result is that it depicts "Dr. King's emergence from, as opposed to his placement into, the stone," Jackson said.
    King's folded arms, which were among the more controversial aspects of the design, remained unchanged.
    There has been some question "whether or not Dr. King would stand with his arms folded," said Jackson as he displayed the photo on which the design was based. The photo shows King standing behind his desk, arms crossed, with an image of Mohandas Gandhi in the background. "Here is picture proof-positive that he was capable of doing so," Jackson said.
"I was quite vocal about my concern that . . . the association of Dr. King and the stone as a force of nature was being lost," said commission member N. Michael McKinnell. "I think we've regained this with the modifications."
   "He did not feel [the changes] significantly detracted from his original idea," Jackson said.
    After the meeting, the president of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Harry E. Johnson Sr., called dealing with the commission "tedious" but said he was pleased that members seemed satisfied with the changes.
    The foundation, which is building the memorial largely with private donations, announced that it had raised $94.8 million of the $100 million it said it needed.

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