So Newcastle are the latest football club to unveil a new statue of their old number 9, Alan Shearer recently.
A few years ago, Arsenal unveiled a new statue of Thierry Henry and Tony Adams at The Emirates Stadium. Aswell as Denis Bergkamp. And Herbert Chapman. Oh, and Ken Friar too. Five statues.
THIERRY HENRY
TONY ADAMS:
HERBERT CHAPMAN
KEN FRIAR
I'm not sure if a statue fully fits inside the public art cubby hole, but nonetheless, it's art (of a sort), and it's existence exists outside of a gallery. Nobody ever has to pay to go and see it (not yet anyway), and you can just walk past a statue because it's out in public. So for the sake of argument, a statue is public art.
More public art has sprung up in the last 20-30 years than has done in the whole history of mankind previously - in this country at least. It's become almost impossible to see a worth while re-development project without seeing a good few pounds spent on some art - it's almost become a tick box, and we're all seemingly eager to biro it in. Some of it is really great, some not so. Some of it is shite. Most of it is shite.
I had the honour of sitting on an adjudicating panel once for a piece of public art, and although I've only sat on one so can't compare, it was reasonably eye opening. What was more eye opening tho, was being interviewed by phone by a newspaper editor (
the editor) about this proposal, and seeing each and every thing I said twisted to suit their clear agenda, printed on page 2 in a full page article. I may as well not have been called at all, it was that bad. I know newspapers operate in this way, but to see it, and read it first hand, on a very personal level, was memorable.
So I've always been interested in public art. I've also always been interested in the machinations of peddling bullshit.
But let's focus on sporting statues. There's been some great ones... some not so, and some pretty bloody bad.
Sculpture isn't easy. I know, I studied it. But you have to wonder ...
Ted Bates... a big cheese in Southampton FC's history. Will always remember, as many will I'm sure, seeing this pic for the first time. I almost hyperventilated. It struck a chord so deep, but I was literally on my knees. They have, thank god, replaced it with a very fine statue of Ted.
Ah, that's a little better.
So what makes a good sporting statue? What are the key ingredients? Making it look life like? Quite important, tho I love a bit of this:
It's very bloody difficult to exude the idea of movement in a sporting sculpture... some can, some can't. Some don't bother. The Herbert Chapman statue above is lovely I think. I think Arsenal get a 6.8/10 for their new statues... I like the Ken Friar one too, tho I just wish he was left alone without that MASSIVE BIT OF INFORMATION BEHIND HIM!
There's hundreds out there... have you seen the Andy Murray one? Fuck me. Alan's one? Bit of a fail isn't it. 3/10
