Controversies surrounding a new Oscar Wilde sculpture in London

London. A new sculpture by Oscar Wilde is causing controversy in London, although it has not yet been revealed. Conceptualized by artist Eduardo Paolozzi, who died in 2005, the sculpture was commissioned posthumously and was to be installed in 2024 to mark the centenary of the artist’s birth. It will be inaugurated in the Chelsea district on October 16, the day Oscar Wilde was born. It represents the writer’s head placed on its side and divided into several segments. Merlin Holland, the descendant of Oscar Wilde, called the sculpture“hideous” in the columns of Guardian. He criticizes the work for not representing “spirit and brilliance” of the author.

Simon Wilson, a former curator at the Tate, agrees, although he admits he has not yet seen the work directly. “Conceptually, it is similar to the sculpture supposedly representing British inventor James Watt in front of the Design Museum, he emphasizes. So it’s indeed a sculpture by Paolozzi, but it doesn’t say much about Oscar Wilde. »

The specialist admits that one interpretation is possible: that of a tortured god who has fallen into decay. But this interpretation raises the question of location, a neighborhood in which Paolozzi and the writer both lived. “When Oscar Wilde lived in Chelsea, he was at the height of his fame. The location is therefore not appropriate for an image of this type. »

A precedent in 1998

The Oscar Wilde Society, on the other hand, is amused by this controversy. “Continuing to talk about him and arouse controversies about him is the best gift we can give him, 124 years after his death, underlines Vanessa Heron, the president. As he himself said in The Picture of Dorian Gray: when critics disagree, the artist agrees with himself. »

The president is impatiently awaiting the inauguration of the statue to form her own opinion. But whatever the outcome, she believes there will always be people who don’t like it, as was the case with Maggie Hambling’s statue of Oscar Wilde, unveiled in 1998. “People found it hideous, vulgar… But today, it is a popular statue. »

In the spring, the project to install the work had already attracted criticism, because the park where it will be installed is a former cemetery of the Anglican Church. An opponent of the project had argued, among other things, that Wilde’s morality made this statue inappropriate on a still sacred site. This objection was rejected by local ecclesiastics as “grossly exaggerated”.

Maggi Hambling, A Conversation with Oscar Wildeinstalled in 1998 in Charing Cross, London

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