Posted on 02/26/2011 5:22:06 AM PST by JoeProBono
NEW YORK, New York elected officials said they want to sell a controversial statue depicting a male "civic virtue" stepping on female figures of "vice" and "corruption."
The "Triumph of Virtue" statue, which is more than 100 years old and stands in the city's Queens borough, has been described as sexist by U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., and City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, D-Jackson Heights, because it depicts a nude male figure trampling on a pair of female figures, the New York Daily News reported Friday.
Weiner and Ferreras have suggested selling the statue on Craigslist to raise funds for the city.
However, some officials said they do not want the statue, which used to stand at City Hall until it was moved by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia during his 1934-1945 tenure, to be removed from the city.
"It's been one of the board's top priorities for years to have that statue restored," said Mary Ann Carey, district manager of Community Board 9 in Queens. "We're not looking to destroy art."
There has never been a more aptly named member of Congress than Weiner.
Rep. Anthony Weiner’s High School Fro
The artist must have been a gay man. The crats are going to anger the gay mafia.
He looks like the actor Steve Guttenberg too.
Shoor has a purdy mouf.
This corn is special, isn't it?
Who in the hell would want to buy the thing?
Weiner and the Council woman can go p*** off. Frederick MacMonnies (the artist who created the sculpture) was one of the greatest American sculptors of the late 19th/early 20th century. I’d trade a dozen worthless political hacks like Wiener for a guy who can do the work that MacMonnies did.
Besides, those aren’t even human women the young man is trampling on, they’re Sirens!
MacMonnies life and work was not without controversy. He married fellow artist Mary Fairchild, with whom he had three children. But another child was born out of an affair he had with a woman named Helen Glenn. He and Mary divorced in 1909, and he married Alice Jones, daughter of a Nevada Senator.
One of his best known statues, the “Dancing Bacchante with an Infant Faun” (pictured at right), was refused by the Boston Public Library on account of indecency and ended up going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"His “Civic Virtue” (1919) caused quite a stir as well. The piece, which depicted an enormous male figure standing over a prostrate female figure, was intended for the fountain in City Hall but ended up in Queens. There were complaints as to how women were portrayed. It appeared the male figure had planted his foot upon the back of the statue of a woman. In response to these critics, MacMonnies said, “These ladies are evidently not acquainted with their own backs, as it is very evidently a rock and not a lady’s back on which the youth has planted a foot.” He added, “I am sure no man would make a mistake like that.” Ouch."
Where have I seen that picture before? Hmm, let me think about this for a minute.
And those of us with ravaged faces, Lacking in the social graces, Desperately remained at home, Inventing lovers on the phone.
Homo hate statue not news.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
