This statue (for lack of better words) is outside of Hadlock Field, where the Sea Dogs baseball team plays their home games.
It was unveiled last year and I still find it disappointing. There was some rumbling in the arts community (see here) that, according the public arts committee "... the statues, which depict a traditional family of four on the way to a baseball game, would be too large, display the team logo and fail to reflect the modern diversity of Portland, both in its people and its artwork."Those are all valid points.
My point is that the father figure in the statue is clearly trying to scalp the tickets. It looks like he loaded up the wife and kids in the minivan, clearly promising to treat them to America's past-time, and then started yelling "TICKETS FOR SALE HERE!" as they approached the entrance. What a jerk.
I love sculpture and think it's great when city add them around their towns. Interesting "controversy" on this one.
ReplyDeleteThe sculpture "Michael", a stylized Phoenix off Monument Sq, was much more controversial 35 years ago...and it's a much better piece of art.
ReplyDeleteThe controversy around this statue was stupid and irrelevant, but the "family" is sort of ugly, especially the wife's outfit.
The best city "people statues" are someone you know, like Auerbach and Curley in Boston.
This IS an odd sculpture. We left Portland before it was unveiled so missed all the hooha.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the photo before I read about the diversity aspect. What is the matter with a sculpture just representing baseball?
ReplyDeleteI think it just doesn't work on any level. A lot of towns require a piece of public art as part of a new project, a lot of wild missed swings there too.