The sculptures you see every day might not be “real”
In many towns and small cities through the country, a certain flavor of sturdy, weather-resistant bronze sculpture has become ubiquitous: children frozen midplay in parks; larger-than-life mammals standing sentinel within roundabouts; and whimsical characters along walking paths.
They are often counted as whole or part of a public art collection, as is the case in Golden. The city recently hired Denver-based Art Management and Planning Associates to assess the condition of its outdoor art, resulting in some damning judgment of certain pieces:
“The sculpture is of low quality, and mass-produced in China with no said artist to contact or documentation to this work.”
The firm’s evaluation continued: “Many times these sculptures from China are illegal reproductions of original artwork.”
After that harsh review, the city’s public art commission is now considering five sculptures — which include a bear and two cubs; children in cowboy hats lassoing an invisible target; kids on a sled — for removal from the collection.
Those pieces are credited to Steven Bennett, late founder of a North Carolina bronze wholesaler.
But art isn’t straightforward, and “real” and “fake” can be difficult to discern from each other. Is quality art dictated by the cost and integrity of the piece? By how many kids climb up on it for a memorable photo?
While these pieces are massproduced — another copy of Golden’s kids on a sled can be found on a corner in Ogden, Utah — city officials and some residents testify that they are also well-loved.
“They are appreciated by other people. And maybe the bears don’t look quite right to some people, but other people like them,” said Pat Madison, a Golden artist whose name is on a few of the 20 or so other sculptures — those considered to be “authentic” — in his city.
“I’m OK with my art being there next to those pieces,” Madison said. He is also a past board member of the Golden Civic Foundation, which started the city’s public art program.
The statues made their way into the public art collection by way of a donation to the Golden Civic Foundation about a decade ago, which predates the city’s 3-year-old public art commission and its maturing standards, said Steve Glueck, the city’s director of economic development.
“The priorities now are for original art — and almost all of our art is original art,” Glueck said. “Whether these are exceptions or whether the feeling of supporting original art only applies moving forward, I really can’t say.”
Jane DeDecker, a Lovelandbased sculptor with pieces throughout the country, including the Denver Botanic Gardens, would like to see such massproduced sculptures disappear.
DeDecker is among the artists listed at bronzecopyright.com, a website devoted to awareness of plagiarized and fake bronze sculptures. The website was listed as a reference in the assessment of Golden’s sculptures.
DeDecker said she struggled trying to get copies or knockoffs of her work pulled from manufacturing facilities overseas.
“On the foundry floor, there were 600 copies of this sculpture,” she said of one knockoff, as reported to her by a friend who visited the foundry. “It was just kind of discouraging.”
Golden is not the only city with these less-than-original works on display and not the first to be in the news.
In August 2007, the Las Vegas Sun reported that thieves who stole two bronze statues from outside a nonprofit, likely to melt them down for metal, “made a bad five-finger investment” because the sculptures likely were knockoffs made from low-grade metals.
That same month, the city of Enumclaw, Wash., discovered that a bronze sculpture it ordered to commemorate its arts commission’s 25th anniversary was a fake, created by “a phantom artist whose name is linked to counterfeit art,” the Seattle Times reported.
In a later report, Enumclaw officials were satisfied when they tracked down the statue’s manufacturer and found him to be a Thai artist who said — via cryptic e-mails — that he uses Jim Davidson as his Western name.
DeDecker and her fellow artists are not convinced.
“Jim Davidson doesn’t exist,” she said.
Ruth Bruno is the public art program manager for Colorado Creative Industries, the state’s public art purchaser, and she said its focus is on supporting artists and spending taxpayer money responsibly. That would not seem to include buying knockoff art.
“On our panels, we always have an artist or someone related to the arts that kind of acts as that layer of judgment,” she said. “Our mission and legislation says that we’re supposed to acquire fine art for the state, and art of quality.”
The general public, though, might not be as concerned with art of quality.
“I like them. I think they should stay,” said Bill Foley, a Golden resident who shared his opinion before knowing which pieces were on the chopping block.
Carolyn Grenier walks her dog along the Clear Creek path by the bear and cubs, not far from her downtown Golden apartment. She said she is OK with the city’s art collection resembling her own: a mix of items that have sentimental value as gifts and high-end pieces she has purchased as art.
“It’s fine as it is — that’s what I think about the pieces they want to remove,” she said. “They’re cute, it’s not total art. We enjoy them, they’re there. But if it costs money to leave them there, I would say take them down.”