Echoes of Manzoni as statue is ‘trashed’
DEAR Editor, Viv Astling of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (Post letters, June 23) misses the point about the statue of Queen Victoria.
Victoria Square is the centre of Birmingham and the statue is the centre of the square, the essential symbol of Birmingham.
Great care was taken when the square was re-planned in the nineties to ensure it retained its prominence.
Thomas Brock was a good sculptor and William Bloye the finest of his time here.
This refashioning profoundly disrespects the statue, and thereby the whole history of the city. It is as if someone in London mistreated Nelson’s Column.
I don’t criticise Hew Locke. He won’t know this. His work is interesting and as a stand-alone would have been welcome. The people to blame are those who promoted and commissioned this outrage.
The trashing of Queen Victoria, with many eyes on us for the Commonwealth Games, perfectly symbolises our current philistine attitudes.
Good Victorian buildings are destroyed willy-nilly to put up huge tower blocks. The Art Gallery won’t show its pictures by our greatest artist, Burne-Jones. Plaques are put up which can’t spell Bloye’s name, or get dates right.
Herbert Manzoni, the City Engineer who in the 1960s tried to destroy Birmingham, said “there is little of real worth in our architecture”. He meant public sculpture too. He destroyed much of it.
He had a contempt, almost hatred, for Birmingham’s history. And now we are back to Manzoni: city planners, and civic and artistic organisations as well.
Andy Foster, Selly Park, Birmingham