Do you have to be the same race of the subject to make sculpture? It seems that the City of Philadelphia believes that yes, yes you do.
Last year the city asked North Carolina based artist Wesley Wofford to sculpt a permanent statue of abolitionist and Civil War scout (among other things) Harriet Tubman in front of their City Hall after seeing the reception that a traveling version of his 2017 statue Journey to Freedom had received when it was displayed there. Almost immediately a firestorm was ignited over the choice of Wofford... because he was White! Of course local artists claimed that they were mad that the commission had been given without a bidding process and that Wofford's race had nothing to do with it (never mind that Wofford's statue is apparently what inspired this whole project in the first place). We're very sure that's entirely true.
The city of Philadelphia has picked the winning design for a Harriet Tubman statue outside City Hall after facing criticism over its original choice of a white artist who’d been selected without competition. https://t.co/lXXVYUcmfB
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 2, 2023
The Philadelphia Inquirer notes that at the time local textile artist Dee Jones that 'As an artist, it’s hurtful and it is traumatizing...If it was an open call, and Wesley was chosen, it would be fine. But because the process wasn’t open, that’s the big issue.”
So serendipitously the man whose statue inspired this whole shebang has now been sidelined for... you guessed it, a black man.
definitely can't have any white artists - hopefully that's been resolved
— stepfanie (@stepfaniex) November 2, 2023
Meritocracy is dead.
— The Investigative Examiners (@TruthorConseq12) November 2, 2023
I was about to visit the Sistine chapel, and then I realized I’m not Italian
— Axl Pansy (@Tardagain2) November 2, 2023
Whole vistas of artistic creation and appreciation closed off to us by the accident of our birth these days.
Whites need not apply https://t.co/GWaMVyPqVd
— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) November 2, 2023
Recommended
The crisis in progressivism in one tweet is they denounce tribalism, sectarianism all over the world but in America they promote these ethnostate kind of ideas. As long as they're inconsistent they can't expect success can they? https://t.co/a3k8UicUxb
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) November 2, 2023
A) The selected statue is fine (better than the garbage MLK Sculpture in Boston).
— Aragorn Aragon (@RXCafeTX) November 2, 2023
B) Not having an open competition might have been a mistake.
C) It's not "traumatizing" to select a sculptor that isn't you or doesn't look like you or the subject. https://t.co/agorKfcDLR
The quality of the work does not matter. Only the appearance of the artist. https://t.co/aoguJu9Tkr pic.twitter.com/g6zzpDMs4H
— Andrew Beck (@AndrewBeckUSA) November 2, 2023
Of course maybe the new statue IS better to sit in downtown Philadelphia given the current state of the city... the new artist whose design has been chosen, Alvin Pettit, has chosen to depict Tubman with a gun strapped to her back. Standing downtown 24/7 in Philadelphia these days she may well need to use it.
***
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy Twitchy's conservative reporting taking on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth. Join Twitchy VIP and use the promo code SAVEAMERICA to get 40% off your VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member