Sun Square Corner of Chenango Street & Henry Street Binghamton New York
Date:
1968
Notes:
Save Outdoor Sculpture, New York survey, 1994.
Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, NY), July 1, 1996.
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY/35TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES/OF AMERICA/BORN,MAY 29,1917/GRADUATED HARVARD UNIVERSITY/1940/AUTHOR OF 'WHY ENGLAND SLEPT'/AND 'PROFILES IN COURAGE'/SERVED/IN U.S. NAVY,1941-45/ELECTED U.S./REPRESENTATIVE 1946/ELECTED U.S./SENATOR 1952/ELECTED PRESIDENT/1960/CHAMPION OF THE NEW FRONTIER/FOUNDED THE ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS/AND THE PEACE CORPS/ENCOURAGED THE/EXPLORATION OF SPACE/SOUGHT/HUMAN RIGHTS unsigned
The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Summary:
An abstract sculpture honoring John F. Kennedy consists of seven bronze relief plaques attached to the sides of an angular granite base. The plaques, or "seals of silence," depict the evils of non-involvement in the struggles of life by showing abstract figures in various states of disease. The first seal, "The Maimed and the Ignorant," shows three isolated figures with a bulbous cloud overhead. The second seal shows three figures standing in separate compartments, isolated from one another, and is titled "The Conformists." "The Uninspired," depicts three figures squeezed into a tiny space, compressed into inactivity by a bulging force above and below.
The fourth seal is entitled "The Rejected." It shows three figures "out of equilibrium" with themselves and with other people. "The Depraved," the fifth seal, is meant to symbolize absolute negative involvement. The figures are contorted in powerful writhings of misdirected pleasure. The sixth seal, "The Invisible," shows six figures, all with their identities literally scooped out. Instead of bodies, there are merely molds for bodies, with one figure preparing to enter a new mold of non-existence. "The Dead" is the final plaque. It shows only blurred forms, in "the final involvement," with a body lying inert.
