Making a memorial

As a general rule, artists don’t like to reveal the steps taken to create their work. However, visitors to The Lawrenceville School will be able to see a number of the preliminary sketches and models used by sculptor Jonathan Shahn in designing a Jersey City memorial to Martin Luther King Jr.

By: Steve Bates

The original plaster cast of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Jersey City is a part of the exhibit on display at The Lawrenceville School. Staff photo by Robyn C. Stein

   LAWRENCE — Like magicians who vow never to reveal the secrets of their trade, artists generally don’t go into great detail about the steps they take when creating their work.
   However, visitors to "The Making of a Monument" exhibition, at the Marguerite & James Hutchins Gallery at The Lawrenceville School on Route 206, will be treated to an insider’s view of the creative process at work.
   Sculptor Jonathan Shahn has provided a number of the preliminary sketches, maquettes and models that he used to create the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, which was installed at a NJ Transit train station in Jersey City last year.
   A lifelong artist, Mr. Shahn lives in Roosevelt, Monmouth County. He has exhibited regularly in galleries in both Europe and the United States since the early 1970s, and has taught in a number of different art schools.
   The Jersey City memorial consists of an enormous bronze sculptured bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that sits on a 7-foot pedestal and a series of bas-reliefs, sculptures in which figures or scenes are carved in a flat surface so they project from the background. The bas-reliefs run along a rectangular wall mounted on top of a large oval bench.
   The bas-reliefs are related to the struggle for civil rights during the King era. On the other side of the slab of bas-reliefs is a quote Dr. King composed in a letter from a Birmingham jail. The quote reads, "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
   "Everywhere you see the words of Dr. King, you see ‘I have a dream,’ " said Mr. Shahn. "I didn’t want the same old words."
   Mr. Shahn said once he decided that he wanted a quote of some kind on one side of the bench wall, he began to read through volumes of the civil rights leader’s writings and speeches. It was not that this quote jumped out as the perfect characterization of the Dr. King’s words, but it provided an adequate representation of a characteristic sentiment that worked aesthetically, he said.
   The panel and the bas-reliefs on the other side were an attempt by the artist to put Dr. King’s memorial into historical context. Bas-reliefs are commonly found in European churches and are used to explain or illustrate specific historical events, like the scenes leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In this case, a cadre of protest marchers, the solemn and defiant visage of Dr. King’s face as he is taken to jail by police officers or the faces of those who died for the struggle emerge from a series of plaster castings of the final stone wall as if there were photos underneath pushing the images out.
   Mr. Shahn never wrote specifically what the scenes in each of the four bas-reliefs were supposed to represent. However, it is obvious that each series of images mean to trace the path of the Civil Rights Movement from protest to the violent reactions to the struggle, to some victories. The final panel is a gallery of faces of those who died because of the struggle for civil rights, the last of which being Dr. King.
   From start to finish, the memorial was completed in three years, but all the actual work probably took about six months to create. The project was the result of a 1997 competition for works of art that were to be installed at NJ Transit train stations in Jersey City and Bayonne. Mr. Shahn conceived the original plan for the memorial with fellow artist Penelope Jencks, however other projects made it impossible for Ms. Jencks to help flesh out the project with Mr. Shahn.
   The exhibition is divided between two floors of the gallery. The first floor is dedicated to the early stages of the project and the conceptualization of the bust of the civil rights leader.
   The primary sketches for the memorial, the original clay maquette of the bronze bust, a series of photos that focus on the construction of the armature — or wood skeleton — for the plaster model of the bust and the original armature itself are all included in the show. The coolest piece has to be the wooden skeleton, with nails and screws marking how deep the clay around them will need to be in order to flesh out the face of Dr. King.
   Mr. Shahn said he studied many photos of the civil rights leader’s facial expressions and physiology before deciding how best to translate those features to sculptured bronze. The most important feature for Mr. Shahn was to have the Dr. King’s mouth open slightly so it would look like he was just about to say something.
   "Everything based on him was about the word," said Mr. Shahn. "That’s why I made the mouth open."
   The face of the civil rights leader used in the sculpture was a composite of what Mr. Shahn called the Dr. King’s "youthful look." The artist didn’t want to make the face any specific age, nor did he strive for absolute accuracy in the planning of the bas-reliefs. The piece was based upon the memories that Mr. Shahn had of theDr. King and the impressions they left.
   Upstairs, a scene depicting a side view of the Dr. King speaking on the steps of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, has enormous pillars drawn into the background which could really only have been seen if one was looking at him straight on, said Mr. Shahn. While nothing was completely made up, certain aspects were added to the bas-reliefs to add context.
   Opposite the plaster castings of the bas-reliefs, is a series of sketches that the artist used to plan out the scenes. The hardest scene to immortalize in bronze was one depicting hoses being turned on blacks during a demonstration, said Mr. Shahn. There’s no real good way to depict a stream of water hitting someone through sculpture, he said.
   It’s nice to have these pieces on display, because the art is being presented to the public under ideal circumstances. Carpenters came in and built shelves to hold the bas-relief drafts and industrial gallery lights illuminate more detail than can be viewed at the memorial’s home in Jersey City, said Mr. Shahn. Bronze is much darker than the clay-colored drafts under the bright gallery lights.
   There are no plans for this exhibition to travel anywhere else, according to Mr. Shahn, however, he’d like to see that happen.
   Regardless of what the future may bring, the show will continue at the Hutchins Gallery through Feb. 17.
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