Nelson & His World

Boris has announced Fourth Plinth 2012/13 Winners. In 2013 a German artist will put a giant ultramarine cock on the fourth plinth. Give the cockerel is a national symbol of revolutionary France, what will our man think of that?

Before then, in 2012 the sculpture will be a rather unprepossessing bronze boy on a rocking horse - intended to cock a snoot at the surrounding military statues. But maybe the target is more the generals than the admiral?

See: http://www.london.gov.uk/fourthplinth/

Thanks for that, Tony.

I too received a Google alert about the new exhibits. I think maybe its a good idea to have a varying display of modern art but I wonder why the military statues arouse such antagonism and derision from artists, and from the previous mayor, Ken Livingstone, who would have been happy to sweep away all the military heroes in Trafalgar Square. I've commented elsewhere on the forum that the pressure to erase the monuments of the past, even if they do not chime with modern sensibilities, has a whiff of totalitarianism about it. I have no comment to make about the artistic merit of the statue of the boy on the rocking horse; but I am curious as to why the artists feel that they need to 'challenge' (this was the word used in my Google alert) the military statues in Trafalgar Square. Are they proposing to offer similar 'challenges' to other symbols of military or imperialistic achievements elsewhere - for example, the equestrian statue of Colleoni in Venice, the Emperor Trajan's column in Rome, or Les Invalides in Paris which houses the remains of Napoleon and other French military heroes? Or maybe, since the artists are Scandinavian, they might choose to begin at home and cock a snook at the statue of the Scandinavian naval hero Niels Juel in Copenhagen? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Juel

Michael Elmgreen, one of the artists, says the work is 'a mocking reference to all the grand generals and war heroes who occupy the square.
It is first of all a comment on the tradition of monuments that are very authoritarian, like the ones in Trafalgar Square. They look scary.'

Intelligent commentary on the art of the past is one thing. This comment only betrays his ignorance: Nelson was beloved for his humanity as was Napier - if he'd troubled to read the inscription, he would see that the statue was funded entirely by the pennies of the common soldiery in tribute to a beloved commander.

Gosh, I've got crosser and crosser as I've typed this!

Anna,

Well, that's artists for you! Many of them tend to live on a different planet and imagine themselves either as trendsetters or working at the 'cliff face' of what others should think.

Unfortunately, as you say, its not often informed or researched opinion. Do they know or have taken the trouble to find out, the reason why these war leaders are so represented Trafalgar Square in the first place? Very likely not and neither probably do they have any idea as to the character and lives of these men and the men they led. Neither seemingly do they have any regard for history and the reasons why things happened as they did. They also tend to forget that unfortunately history repeats itself, largely because man doesn't seem to want to learn the lessons from the past, which I believe will take more than a statue or sculpture to change. At its lowest level, surely it also involves the proper teaching of history in schools!

War is an evil to any right thinking person, but it is very easy for many to just turn their backs on it and want nothing to do with it, rather than try to address the problems which cause wars. It also may surprise many artists to learn that the men and women in most armed forces do not want war, although they train for it, and are actually in the business of deterring conflict.