Peace Monuments
Related to Reconciliation
See below for special section on Reconciliation by Josefina de Vasconcellos.
Right click image to enlarge.
c.1510 - Il Figlio Prodigo / The Prodigal Son, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (Netherlands). By Hieronymus Bosch [c1450-1516]. Also known as The Wayfarer, The Vagabond or The Pedlar.
1628 - The Reconcilation of King Henry III & Henry of Navarre, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, New York (USA). By Peter Paul Rubens [1577-1640].
1662 - "Terugkeer van de Verloren Zoon / The Return of the Prodigal Son," Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (Russia). By Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn [1606-1669]. Image is a detail of the original painting. Henri Nouwen [1932-1996] wrote a short book, "The Return of the Prodigal Son", based on his contemplation of Rembrandt's painting of the same name.
1855 - The Reconcilation of Montagues and Capulets (Over the Dead Bodies of Romeo and Juliet), Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut (USA). By Frederic Lord Leighton [1830 – 1896].
1910 - New York Peace Monument, Point Park, Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA). Statues at peak are soldiers from North & South shaking hands. Built by State of New York.
October 1911 - Peace Monument to "The Old Guard," 14th Street Entrance, Piedmont Park, Atlanta, Georgia (USA). "Commemorates the historic 'Mission of Peace' to the North in 1879 by the Gate City Guard of Atlanta." Depicts a Civil War soldier lowering his rifle as he hears a call from the Angel of Peace.
May 28, 1933 - Hungary Mourns Her Lost Children," Debrecen (Hungary). "In an act of reconciliation, the statue was carved by French sculptor Emile Guillaume [1867-1942] and offered to Debrecen by British Viscount Lord Rothermere." Guillaume also sculpted La Délivrance (qv).
1953 - Bridge of Europe, across Rhine River between Strasbourg (France) & Kehl (Germany). "Permanent artistic installation, a bond between two countries for which the border formerly seemed & wanted to be insuperable. According to Roland Ries, then mayor of Strasbourg, 'Here, it is indeed Europe, because this bridge connects two countries that have been torn apart for a long time; the reconciliation of these two countries is today one of the surest supports of the European construction.'"
About 1965 - Open Hand Monument, in "The Ditch of Consideration," Chandigahr, Punjab (India). Heavy copper hand 100 feet high rotates in the wind. Also looks like dove of peace. By French architect Le Corbusier [1887-1965] who said, "This sign of the Open Hand is a sign of peace and of reconciliation. [It] is meant to receive the created riches, and to distribute them to the peoples of the world. That should be the symbol of our epoch." Corbu made the overall plan for Chandigahr and designed some of the original buildings. Click here for air view.
1982 - Mandela Gardens, Millennium Square (SE corner), Calverley Street, Leeds (England). "Officially reopened" in April 2001 by Nelson Mandela. Feature a 16-foot bronze statue entitled "Both Arms" by Leeds-born sculptor Kenneth Armitage [1916-2002]. "The arms express a feeling of welcome and are envisaged as a monument to friendship."
1987 - Reconciliation Park, Mankato, Minnesota (USA). Relations between the Dakota & non-Dakota people of the area were strained for decades after the US-Dakota War, particularly the hanging of the 38 Dakota. In 1980 the City of Mankato presented the Dakota people with a park. In 1987, the 125th anniversary of the execution, Minnesota's Governor declared a Year of Reconciliation. The City of Mankato commissioned local artist Tom Miller to create the statue 'Winter Warrior' that stands at the site of the execution, next to the Mankato Public Library. In 1992 the City of Mankato purchased the site of the execution and named it Reconciliation Park. People from the Mankato community worked with Dakota people to raise funds for a statue of a white buffalo at the park. People gather there every December 26th, the anniversary of the execution, in prayer and remembrance.
1989 - Statue of National Reconciliation, Klafthmonos Square, Athens (Greece). Celebrates the 40 years from the end of the 1945-49 civil war. Klafthmonos Square means "square of grief," named for civil servants of 19th century who were fired from their state jobs every time the government was changes and gathered there to cry for their fate.
"Reconciliation Triangle:" Five identical monuments by Stephen Broadbent expressing remorse for the slave trade.
2007? - Cotonou? (Benin). A former source of slaves.
March 30, 2007 - Richmond, Virginia (USA). On site of a former slave market.
1992 - Reconcilation (National Peacekeeping Monument), Ottawa, Ontario (Canada). Entry #1302 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). of Peace.
1992 - "Reconciliation/Hands Across the Divide" Statue, west end of Craigavon Bridge, Londonderry (Northern Ireland). Produced by Maurice Harron. An image of the statue illustrates the website and brochures of the "Ulster Project" in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (USA).
2001 - Reconciliation Place, Parliamentary Triangle , Canberrra, Australian Capital Territory (Australia). "An urban landscape design established as a monument to reconciliation between Australia’s Indigenous people and settler population."
October 20, 2001 - Kentucky Memorial, Kentucky Avenue, Vicksburg, Mississippi (USA). "Soldiers from Kentucky fought on both sides of the Battle. The Memorial is a statue of Presidents Lincoln and Davis (both Kentucky natives) with words from both of them calling for reconciliation between the North and South. At the start of the war Kentucky declared itself to be Neutral and only sided with Union after a Confederate invasion. Even so, the Conferdacy still had support there and was able to recruit soldiers both then and during a later invasion in 1862."
2002 - Spirit Warriors Sculpture," Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, Crow Agency, Montana (USA). Iron sculpture by native artist Colleen Cutschall honoring Native Americans was placed next to the 1881 memorial (qv) after winning a "Peace Through Unity" competition. "On the memorial's walls are the names of many of the warriors involved in the battle and words of wisdom they are credited with saying. A "Spirit Gate Window" in the memorial's side looks directly at the Custer memorial on the hill in a gesture to welcome the Calvary dead into the memorial's circle."
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E2003 - Peace Bridge, Freetown (Sierra Leone). The Truth & Reconciliation Commission renamed the Congo Cross Bridge to mark the place where the invasion of Freetown on 6 January1999 was stopped. The Peace Bridge reminds the people of Sierra Leone that the war was overcome. And it gives hope that peace will become the bridge to the future.
2005 - "Reconciliation: The Parable of the Prodigal Son," Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina (USA). By Margaret Adams Parker. See Luke 15:11-32. "Everyday on the terrace of the beautiful new addition Duke Divinity School added in 2000 I walk by a stunning sculpture titled 'Reconciliation.' Made by the North Carolina artist Margaret Adams Parker, the sculpture tells the Luke 15 Prodigal Son story. But what Parker captures is a deeper story of a Forgiving Father & Two Lost Sons, powerfully capturing both reconciliation resisted & embraced. Clarence Jordan once wrote of the interracial Koinonia Farm in Georgia, 'This is what always baffles me -- Koinonia is forever dying & forever living. We should have conked out long ago, but somehow others came in the nick of time. This half-born condition is agonizing, and I could wish it otherwise, but there it is.' See the powerfully different faces, hands, and angles of the sculpture and the artist’s account. My favorite detail: the feet -- the 'deserving' elder son's work boots, the returning younger son's bare feet, the father's house slippers. And the pleading eyes of the one without whom a new future is impossible." /// Click here for artist's description.
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"Reconcilation" by Josefina de Vasconcellos: |
Originally named "Reunion." Now exists in in five different cities. According to Nigel Young (03Oct11), the artist originally had barbed wire between the two figures, but this was stolen by vandals & never replaced becasue authorties ruled that it was too dangerous. Three or four copies were paid for by Sir Richard Branson. Click here for the Wikipedia article.
1995 - Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima (Japan). Photo by EWL. Figure at far left is Peter van den Dungen, Professor of Peace Studies, University of Bradford.
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