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Chas Fagan’s drawing of a statue of former President Ronald Reagan |
‘10-year rule’ relaxed for Grosvenor Square tribute
‘10-year rule’ relaxed for Grosvenor Square tribute
A BRONZE statue of Ronald Reagan has been approved for a spot in Grosvenor Square.
Planning chiefs at Westminster Council last night (Thursday) decided to waive their own rule that 10 years should pass from the time of death before a commemorative statue can be erected.
Yale graduate and sculptor Chas Fagan’s work has been given the go-ahead despite being rubbished by a panel of experts recruited by the council to vet which public artworks can go on show in central London.
The President Reagan Memorial Trust Fund persuaded the council’s planning committee to overlook the fact that Reagan died five years ago in 2004.
They argued the “10-year rule” should start from the end of his second term in office in 1989 so it can be inaugurated by Baroness Thatcher, 83, with whom he had a famously close relationship and his wife Nancy Reagan, 87.
Planning committee chairman Steve Summers said: “He is a very significant individual. He did some great things for the US and some great things for the world. This makes him an exception to the ten year rule.”
The statue, which will include a fragment of the demolished Berlin Wall, will be the second memorial to a president outside the American Embassy, alongside Dwight Eisenhower, who was also unveiled by Mrs Thatcher when she was Prime Minister.
Despite having his portrait work hanging in the White House, and sculptures on display across the United States, Mr Fagan’s initial clay designs were met with a “lukewarm” reception by Westminster’s Public Art Advisory panel in June. They expressed doubts, reported to the committee, as to whether Mr Fagan’s work had the “gravitas” for a project in such a prominent location.
A statue of Reagan’s successor, George Bush Snr, also made by Mr Fagan, stands in Houston. Nancy Reagan has reportedly worked with him to perfect the likeness of her husband.
Minutes from the behind-closed-doors meeting of the panel last summer released to the West End Extra under the Freedom of Information Act, said: “The panel were uneasy about a number of aspects of this proposal. Their concerns fell into these categories: selection of artist, quality of work and the appropriate use of the site. They added that the ‘pose was felt to be week’ and that ‘the piece was felt to lack the gravitas required for a distinguished subject as Reagan’.”
Reagan was President between 1981 and 1989, and is often seen as a divisive figure for his foreign and tax policies.
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YOUR COMMENTS:
A mediocre statue, of a mediocre character (and president), and a mediocre decision. The criteria that Summers sets out could be used to put up a statue to Dubya = who has done rather more to the U.S. and the world!
Dominic Pinto |
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