The Meaning of Monuments
- ROGER SCRUTON
Monuments, however, do not only commemorate public figures who have deserved well of the nation. They commemorate the nation, raise it above the land on which it is planted, and express an idea of public duty and public achievement in which everyone can share. Their meaning is not "he" or "she" but "we." And the successful monument does not stand out as a defiance of the surrounding order, but endorses it and adds to its grace and dignity.
The controversy over Frank Gehry's design for a
"memorial park" to President Eisenhower — a vast array of hideous
metal walls, covered with reflections on the President's humble origins, and
mutilating (should it be built) an important public area of the capital city —
has alerted Americans to the difficulty, in modern conditions, of obtaining an
appropriate monument. Simple gravestones commemorate private people, and are
inscribed with words of love from the few who will seriously miss them.
Monuments, however, do not only commemorate public figures who have deserved
well of the nation. They commemorate the nation, raise it above the land on
which it is planted, and express an idea of public duty and public achievement
in which everyone can share. Their meaning is not "he" or
"she" but "we." And the successful monument does not stand
out as a defiance of the surrounding order, but endorses it and adds to its grace
and dignity.
Washington has many such monuments. But they belong (for
the most part) to another era, when architects and sculptors were prepared
humbly to retire behind their own creations, so as to respect the city and its
meaning. In proposing Gehry as the architect of the Eisenhower memorial,
however, Washington has opted for another and newer conception of the
architect's role, and it is important to understand this if we are to grasp the
extent and seriousness of their mistake. The Eisenhower family has objected to
the plans on the grounds that the resulting collection of screens and
narratives seem designed to belittle the former president, to cut him down to
size, to redesign him as the barefoot boy who looked in wonder on the high
office that miraculously came his way. But this belittling of the subject is
exactly what the monument intends. By belittling the President the memorial
would exalt its architect. And the true subject of his memorial park, like the
true subject of every building that Gehry has ever built, would be Gehry.
This, it seems to me, shows us the reason why monuments
are these days so hard to commission, and so invariably disappointing.
Architects, who once were servants of the people who employed them, and
conscious contributors to a shared public space, have rebranded themselves as
self-expressive artists, whose works are not designed to fit in to a prior
urban fabric, but to stand out as tributes to the creative urge that gave rise
to them. Their meaning is not "we" but "I," and the
"I" in question gets bigger with every new design.
