5 Monuments by Alan LeQuire
Alan LeQuire (born 1955) is an American sculptor from Nashville, Tennessee, where many of his sculptures are installed... LeQuire specializes in work of great scale, usually large public commissions. His most famous work is the replica of Phidias' Athena Parthenos that stands in the naos of the full-scale reconstruction of the Acropolis Parthenon in Nashville's Centennial Park. /// In 1997 LeQuire created a sculptural group of life-size portraits of Tennessee women's suffrage activists Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, Anne Dallas Dudley & Lizzie Crozier French. The sculpture is on display in Market Square in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, and is known as the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial. /// LeQuire also created a large bronze relief for the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville dedicated to the Women's Rights Movement & commemorating passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1920 -- Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, thus making it part of the US Constitution. /// Another large-scale work is Musica, a bronze statue grouping unveiled in 2003 that sits in a grassy knoll at the center of Buddy Killen Circle, a roundabout where Division Street meets 17th Avenue South in the Music Row area of Nashville.
|   May 20, 1990 - Athena Parthenos, Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee (USA). In the a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon_(Nashville)">Parthenon Replica constructed in 1897. "stands 41 ft 10 in (502 inches (12.8 m)) tall, making her the largest piece of indoor sculpture in the Western World. It stood in Nashville's Parthenon as a plain, white statue for 12 years. In 2002, Parthenon volunteers gilded Athena under the supervision of master gilder Lou Reed. The gilding project took less than four months & makes the modern statue appear that much more like the way that Phidias' Athena Parthenos would have appeared during its time."
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| LA Q U E | 1997 -
Women Suffrage Memorial, Nashville, Tennessee (USA). At Tennessee statehouse? Depicts Lizzy Crozier French of Knoxville, TN (speaking from a car, surrounded by inattentive men) with Tenneesee statehouse on hill in background. Also by Alan LeQuire.
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| October 11, 2003 - "Musica," Roundabout, Music Row, Nashville, Tennessee (USA). Features nine nude figures -- both male & female -- dancing in a circular composition approximately 38 feet (11.5 m) tall. Largest sculpture commission to date for Nashville sculptor Alan LeQuire & currently the largest sculpture group in the USA. Symbolizes Nashville's music business but expresses positive exuberence similar to some peace monuments, e.g. Constellation Earth in Nagasaki (Japan) & Bluffton, Ohio (USA).
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| TA T U E | August 26, 2006 - "Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial," Market Square, Knoxville, Tennessee (USA). Statues of Elizabeth Avery Meriwether [1824-1916] from Memphis, Lizzie Crozier French [1851-1926] from Knoxville & Anne Dallas Dudley [1876-1955] from Nashville. Sculpted by Alan LeQuire of Nashville, TN.
On August 26, 1920, the Tennessee legislature ratified the 19th Amendment by a single vote, thus bringing suffrage to all women in the USA after many years' struggle by "suffragettes" such as the 3 leaders in this memorial. See 1997 plaque & 2016 monument in Nashville, TN.
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Future - Womens Suffrage Monument, Nashville, Tennessee (USA). "Alan LeQuire has been hired to do the Nashville one, and I want him to do Memphis' also." Information from phone conversation with Paula Casey, Memphis, TN, 21 July 2013.
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Future - Womens Suffrage Monument, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee (USA). "I am spearheading a monument in Memphis also. The 19th Amendment passed in Nashville due to a united Shelby County delegation." Information from phone conversation with Paula Casey, Memphis, TN, 21 July 2013.
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Future - Womens Suffrage Monument, Krutch Park, Knoxville, Tennessee (USA). "Wanda Sobieski has been responsible for the first one in Knoxville [see August 26, 2006] and is working to get another one by Alan LeQuire of Harry Burn [1895-1977] and his mother, Febb Ensminger Burn. Knoxville will [then] have two." Quotation from phone conversation with Paula Casey, Memphis, TN, 21 July 2013. /// On November 3, 2013, Sobieski said that Alan LeQuire has completed a design, that Krutch Park (adjacent to Market Square) had been selected as the location & that the monument will cost about $350,000. /// From Knoxville News Sentinel, December 27, 2016: "The East Tennessee Foundation’s Suffrage Coalition has announced a public fundraising effort to help garner support for a new statue honoring East Tennessee legislator Harry Burn who cast the crucial vote to approve the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. The statue will be installed on the southeast corner of Clinch Avenue and Market Street in front of the East Tennessee History Center..." ///
Upper image is from the KNS article & shows Wanda Sobieski. Lower image shows Feminist Majority Foundation leader Eleanor Smeal, center, speaking with Lillian Mashburn, left, & Suffrage Coalition coordinator Wanda Sobieski, in Knoxville on July 31, 2013.
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Future - Womens Suffrage Monument, Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA). "We are hoping to get a monument in Chattanooga." Information from phone conversation with Paula Casey, Memphis, TN, 21 July 2013.
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August 26, 2016 - Suffrage Monument, Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee (USA).
Dedicated as part of Women's Equality Day. By Nashville sculptor Alan LeQuire. "Features five women who were actually in Nashville during the final ratification effort: Anne Dallas Dudley [1876-1955] of Nashville; Frankie Pierce [1864-1954] of Nashville; Sue Shelton White [1887-1943] of Jackson; Abby Crawford Milton [1881-1991] of Chattanooga, and Carrie Chapman Catt [1859-1947] -- the national suffrage leader who came to Nashville during the summer of 1920 to direct the pro-suffrage forces & stayed at the Hermitage Hotel... Tennessee was the last state of the then 48 states that could possibly ratify the 19th Amendment which granted all American women the right to vote in 1920. Editorial cartoonists called the state 'The Perfect 36' since three-quarters of the states were necessary for ratification."
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