Memorials Now

"With the increased prominence of protests organized by public groups like Black Lives Matter, recent years have seen a shift in public opinion on memorials and monuments which represent figures with ties to slavery, oppression, and imperialism. While this led to some of the most widespread recent popular interest in the role of public art, it is only the latest event in an evolving era in art history which finds artists and historians working to respond to changing public opinion and expectations about who is memorialized in the public space and why. In Memorials Now, well-known authorities in public art Cher Krause Knight and Harriet F Senie consider a selection of notable recent case studies which exemplify changing beliefs about the values and roles of memorials. With a particular interest in the ways that artists have moved to memorialize and honour people who have traditionally been underrepresented and oppressed, this text explores exciting public memorials such as the memorial to an enslaved man in 1763 Monument in Georgetown, Guyana; the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt; and the recent work by Steve Locke, Three Deliberate Grays for Freddie (A Memorial for Freddie Gray). Though the text is largely concerned with the ways in which this movement is playing out in the United States, the text also draws in examples from around the world, thus demonstrating the many ways that artists have responded to the particular situations of their communities to memorialize the most vulnerable community members. This text promises to become an essential work in the current study of memorials, monuments, and public art. This is a thriving area of study in art history -- particularly for its interconnection with politics, sociology, visual anthropology, and culture studies -- but is also of timely relevance in courses on public planning, urban development, and architecture. As the latest work by two highly respected scholars in this area, there is sure to be much interest in this book both for its value in the classroom and its contribution to scholarship"--