With the lease agreement up and construction of a new roundabout, city leaders will consider the fate of one of Sarasota’s most iconic pieces
SARASOTA — Since its arrival in 2005 as part of a seasonal art exhibition on the Sarasota Bayfront, the massive “Unconditional Surrender” sculpture has been one of the most polarizing attractions in town.
The 26-foot-high statue depicting a World War II sailor kissing a woman on V-J Day in 1945 and inspired by an iconic photograph has its detractors, but it’s undeniably popular. Tourists (and some locals) flock to it, passing their cameras off to someone who can capture their efforts to replicate the giant figures’ pose.
Now, the future of J. Seward Johnson’s sculpture at Bayfront Park is uncertain, as Sarasota city commissioners consider what to do after they temporarily place it in storage ahead of a planned roundabout project at Gulfstream Avenue and U.S. 41.
Their choices, according to a memo issued by City Attorney Bob Fournier, include moving it to another site near the current location; moving it elsewhere in the city; or getting rid of it entirely by returning it to the sculptor’s nonprofit foundation. Any choice is likely to ignite another fierce debate about the sculpture’s place in Sarasota.
On one side of the argument are people like Kelly Franklin, who often runs or walks by the sculpture and believes the sculpture is a reminder of a sexual assault.
“The truth about what happened in Times Square that day is not attractive, not heroic sculpture-worthy, and not in any way emblematic of our city and its values,” Franklin said.
Others find fault less with the scene depicted than with the outsize 3D rendition itself, regarding it as more kitsch than craft. Sarasota artist Virginia Hoffman once likened it to “an escapee from the Macy’s Day parade.”
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On the other side are people like Dan Kennedy, the founder and former headmaster of the Sarasota Military Academy, who believe it to be a beloved World War II tribute.
“I can understand the criticism,” said Kennedy. “But the statue captures the euphoria of that particular moment in history, when the fighting was to stop. To me it represents much more than a kiss, it represents Sarasota’s commitment to veterans across the world.”
Construction on the Gulfstream roundabout is expected to begin next spring and take about a year to complete. During the construction, temporary diversion lanes will be created to allow for movement of traffic through the intersection.
Those lanes, and the surrounding work zones, will overlap the land occupied by the “Unconditional Surrender” statue and John Henry’s 70-foot-tall red geometric sculpture, “Complexus,” across the street.
City staff has recommended that the sculptures be kept in storage during construction and reinstalled near their current locations upon completion.
A loan agreement set up when the sculpture was purchased in 2010 by Sarasota veteran Jack Curran, which initially prevented the city from relocating it from Bayfront Park, has expired. Few city commissioners who spoke to the Herald-Tribune ahead of Monday’s meeting were in favor of getting rid of the statue.
“This sculpture has mixed reviews but it’s one of our most popular sites in the city,” said Commissioner Liz Alpert. “I think it would be a shame to get rid of it because so many people like it.”
Mayor Jen Ahearn-Koch believes it might be time to move the statue away from the highly trafficked Gulfstream Avenue. With the added roundabout, it might add a distraction to an intersection that will likely take some getting used to.
“The last thing we want is people getting distracted,” said Ahearn-Koch.
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How we got here
J. Steward Johnson’s giant kissing statue, parked alongside U.S. 41, has been beloved and bemoaned in Sarasota since it first appeared in that spot for a temporary visit in 2005.
In 2008, it returned for what was intended to be a temporary engagement, sparking a hot debate about its artistic merit. When Curran ponied up $500,000 to keep it here, the statue’s detractors were dismayed.
Curran’s donation had a condition: The city had to agree to leave it on the bayfront, more or less where it was, for 10 years. Since welders melted the bolts at the base of the smooching statue in 2010, it has only been removed once.
That came in 2012, when a white Mercedes struck it, knocking a hole about the size of a microwave oven out of the sailor’s foot. The anti-statue camp got a roughly six-month reprieve before the repaired kissing duo were returned to their prominent pedestal.
The statue has been the backdrop of many protests and marches, including the 2016 Women’s March, which saw thousands swamp the bayfront park.
The “Unconditional Surrender” statue has also attracted the attention of vandals. On April Fools Day in 2015, someone added a pink substance, made to resemble chewing gum, to the heel of the woman. Last year, the statue made national headlines when someone spray painted “#MeToo” across the man’s legs the day after George Mendosa, the sailor depicted in the photograph that inspired the statue, died.
Although the image of Mendosa kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman has long been heralded for epitomizing the joy shared throughout the world upon the ending of hostilities in 1945, it has come under scrutiny more recently, with many accusing Mendosa of assault.
Friedman had spoken of her shock at being grabbed and kissed by Mendosa, who was drunk, amid the exuberant scene in Times Square after the surrender of Japan.
In a 2005 interview, Friedman said the kiss was nonconsensual, but that she understood it was a “jubilant act,” with her son later telling the New York Times that his mother did not view the kiss negatively.
Storage and cost
If the City Commission agrees to place the artwork in storage, it will have a temporary home with the utilities department. Commissioners also have the option of choosing a temporary display site; however, that would require an expensive installation.
Options for keeping “Unconditional Surrender” at Bayfront Park are limited. A new location would need to be a large, open area with convenient parking, Fournier wrote in a memo to commissioners. Other locations at Bayfront Park adjacent to U.S. 41 would generally require removal of trees.
The combined cost of moving and reinstalling “Complexus” and “Unconditional Surrender” is expected to be more than $132,000.
https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20200531/sarasota-considering-moving-unconditional-surrender-statue
2020-05-31 11:05:22Z
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