Read the article below and then watch a video about a controversial sculpture by Robert Arneson. Post your response: Do you think Arneson's "Portrait of George" should have remained at it's original site? Explain why or why not. (for video click here).
Portrait of George, 1981, by Robert Arneson "is a bust portrait of George Moscone, a popular mayor of San Francisco in the late 1970s. Moscone's big smile, with crooked teeth and squinting eyes, is distinct and alive, and the surface of splattered colors animates the face. The bust sits on a column casually covered, graffiti-like, with phrases recalling Moscone's background, some of his more memorable sayings, and events from his life and death. Arneson's piece was to have been placed in the Moscone Center, a new civic center in San Francisco named after the deceased mayor. Moscone and another politician had been assassinated three years earlier by a disgruntled San Francisco city supervisor named Dan White, who had disagreed with Moscone on most political points, including issues concerning homosexuals.
"Arneson's Portrait of George departs from the status quo of bland, bronze portrait heads of political leaders that are common in parks and in lobbies of many public buildings. This sculpture is irreverent, colorful, and very large, and the viewer cannot pass by without noticing it. It was the pedestal below the head, however, that caused the greatest controversy. Among the words, bullet holes apparently pierce the column, making a comment on the ubiquity of guns in the United States today. A yellow, phallic Twinkie is prominent. Dan White received a light sentence of voluntary manslaughter for his crimes. His lawyers claimed that he had been unbalanced at the time of the shootings because he had eaten too many Twinkie snack cakes. Many San Franciscans protested the lighter sentence, and there was a night of rioting. Arneson's Portrait of George was a vivid, permanent reminder of the circumstances that surrounded his death, the recent riot, and the tensions in the city. (Margaret Lazzari & Dona Schlesier, "Exploring Art," p. 360. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.)
