>>> Eric Fischl--one of America's most respected living artists--created this bronze sculpture of a woman plummeting to her death, basing it on the many people who did just that during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

The statue was displayed in Rockefeller Center starting around the time of the one-year anniversary of 9/11. Immediately, members of the public began complaining about the upsetting nature of the piece, and administrators at the center quickly covered it in cloth and hid it behind a screen. On 18 Sept, it was removed entirely. The Center apologized to anyone who might've been "upset or offended" by the statue.

The best comment on the banishment of this work of art came from Nick Monteleone in the New York Daily News:

There has always been a duality to the purpose of art; it serves both to express emotion and to evoke it. If Fischl's sculpture charged viewers with horror, then it fulfilled its purpose. Fischl's frank portrayal is a primal reminder of the carnage experienced that morning and, by invoking those events, memorializes that horrible day.

If we are to remain true to the repeated assertions that we must never forget, why silence a work like Fischl's? Displaying the sculpture was no more exploitative than airing those videos of the attacks we've all become so familiar with. But perhaps the real, solid presence of "Tumbling Woman" spoke with an urgency that could not be dismissed as easily as a TV news feed.

Artists have, throughout time, shocked and disturbed us into recognizing the world's horrors. Fischl has simply served the traditional function of the artist as social commentator and historical interpreter, but we have asked that his voice be turned down. Would we ask Goya to lighten the reds of his Spanish battlefields?

...

It's like being told, "Never forget - as long as it's not too bothersome."

[read the entire opinion piece by Monteleone]
[read articles on the debacle from the BBC and WNBC]
[visit Eric Fischl's Website]

Meanwhile, the cut-outs of people falling had been created by Sharon Paz and placed in the windows of the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in Queens for the first 9/11 anniversary. Again, people were aghast. Again, the forum for the artwork caved in to the pressure. The Jamaica Center removed the silhouettes on 24 Sept, even though they had been slated to run through 5 Oct.

[read an article by the Associated Press]
[visit Sharon Paz's Website]

front page | newest additions | index + search
about | contact | donate