Classical Clayton

  THE GERMANS GOT THERE FIRST: DONALD TRUMP AND THE AMERICAN VALHALLA   One of Donald Trump’s last actions as President, on Monday 18 January 2021 (his penultimate full day in office) was to announce plans for a ‘National Garden of American Heroes’.   To use his own words, the plan is to create “a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live”, reflecting “the awesome splendour of our country’s timeless exceptionalism” (I’m pretty convinced he wrote the speech himself, including the split infinitive).   Although many aspects of the project are vague – the location has not been decided yet, and it’s unclear where the funding would come from such a large enterprise – the idea is to create a sculpture park featuring 244 statues of American worthies (all deceased, so Kobe Bryant and Whitney make the list, but not Michael Jordan or Beyoncé). Trump’s list is, to put it mildly, a mixed bag, ranging from semi-mythical frontiersm...

  A MEDUSA FOR MANHATTAN :  STATUE OF THE MONTH, NOVEMBER 2020 As the bizarre and frustrating year that has been 2020 draws to a close, I’d like to consider one of the more positive aspects of this year’s events: a renewed interest in public sculpture.   One of the most memorable pieces of news footage this year was the toppling of the bronze statue of slave-trader Edward Colston in Bristol .   Suddenly public sculpture stopped being invisible street furniture and became a topic for discussion, particularly in terms of the purpose of such sculpture: who should we (and shouldn’t we) be commemorating in this way, and what form should such memorials take?       One of the most controversial sculptures to be erected this year (although the original resin version of the statue actually goes back to 2008) is Medusa with the Head of Perseus , a bronze sculpture by the Argentinian sculptor Luciano Garbati depicting a beautiful, naked Medusa holding a ...

  THE MONUMENT: WHY DOES SOUTHPORT HAVE SUCH A MASSIVE WAR MEMORIAL? If you ever pay a visit to the seaside resort of Southport, situated on the Lancashire coast between Liverpool and Preston, it’s impossible to miss a set of structures - an obelisk, two large pavilions and formal gardens with ponds - known as ‘the Monument’.   These structures collectively form Southport ’s war memorial, originally built to commemorate the town’s dead from the Great War (1914-1918) but still in use today, as names are added from each subsequent conflict. So how did Southport come to acquire one of the largest and most impressive war memorials in Britain ?   This article will attempt to answer this question through analysing the process by which the Monument was commissioned.     The idea of a war memorial for Southport began to be floated soon after the signing of the Armistice in November 1918.   It was estimated that of the town’s population of 72,500 (it had...