F E AT U R E Larger !an Life NASHVILLE SCULPTOR ALAN LEQUIRE’S OVERSIZED CULTURAL HEROES HONOR “GRANDPARENTS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT” BY JEFF GOLDMAN

n a city known for its many contributions displayed on the façade of Notre Dame before person, not some emperor. !e idea was not to to the music world, Alan LeQuire has being broken during the French Revolution. create a realistic likeness. For me the idea was to quite literally carved out his own niche LeQuire, however, wanted to translate that try to re-create a living presence.” in Nashville, . to his interest in “real people who succeeded LeQuire grew up around art as his mother, Best known for his full-scale despite obstacles.” Louise, was an art teacher, writer and painter. re-creation of Athena, the largest free- Ironically, the vision for “Cultural He learned bronze casting while working as an standing interior statue in the Western world, Heroes” came to LeQuire during one of his assistant to Milton Hebald in Rome. The first and for Musica: nine, 16-foot tall dancing "gures darkest hours. After completing the Musica major commission he received was the Athena tIhat salute Nashville’s diverse music industry, , LeQuire endured quite a bit of replica in 1982. Standing nearly 42 feet tall, LeQuire’s latest project is somewhat smaller in f lak from the conservative sect in Nashville it took eight years to complete and made its scope but might be his most signi"cant. because the dancers happened to be nude. debut at the Nashville (a full scale LeQuire unveiled the "rst "ve in an ongoing One evening while watching television, replica of the Athens original) in April 1990. series of enormous portrait heads called he came across a PBS American Masters The statue of Nike in Athena’s right hand “Cultural Heroes” in the fall of 2000. !e "rst documentary on Robeson and realized that he stands 6-foot-4 inches tall. "ve, all performing artists from the "rst half of really didn’t know the meaning of hardship. The gold leaf portion was added in 2002 the 20th century, are vaudeville artist Bessie “I didn’t know what suffering was until I for $190,000. Smith (1894-1937); jazz vocalist Billie Holiday saw what Paul Robeson went through,” says LeQuire spends much of his time at LeQuire (1915-1959); folk singer Woody Guthrie (1912- LeQuire at his Nashville gallery in the fall. Gallery, which is a li#le di%erent from a typical art 1967); songwriter and performer Huddie “He and the other artists in the series don’t get gallery in that in contains a working studio. Visitors Ledbe#er (Lead Belly, 1888-1949); and singer, enough credit for what they accomplished.” who stop in are welcome to enter the studio and actor, athlete and social activist Paul Robeson And so it began. The more LeQuire thought catch a glimpse of LeQuire working on his next (1898-1976). LeQuire refers to the quintet about it, the more he liked the idea of honoring Hero, Louis Armstrong, which will be unveiled in as being “the grandparents of the civil rights Robeson, who became LeQuire’s first “hero.” late 2010 or early 2011. “We feel that sets us apart,” movement.” “I began thinking about him and his life says Elizabeth Cave, who manages the gallery. He became interested in the idea of sculpting and wanting to do something to memorialize Of the five inaugural members of LeQuire’s portrait heads after a visit to the Cluncy Robeson,” LeQuire told an audience at the original exhibit, Robeson has the closest ties to Museum in Paris. There, LeQuire became unveiling of the sixth hero, contralto singer Marian the area. The son of an escaped enamored with the striking, larger-than-life Anderson, in the Nashville Public Library. “I had slave who went on to become a Presbyterian Folk singer Huddie Ledbetter, better known heads of the Kings of France, which had been this idea I should (create) a colossal head$a real minister, Robeson was born in Princeton, New as Lead Belly, was one of sculptor Alan LeQuire’s five original “Cultural Heroes.”

P R E S T I G E N E W YO R K 64 H O L I D A Y 2009 H O L I D A Y 2009 65 P R E S T I G E N E W YO R K LEFT: LeQuire considers each of the “Cultural Heroes” artists to be role models who succeeded despite obstacles. RIGHT: LeQuire’s admiration for New Jersey native Paul Robeson was the inspiration for the “Cultural Heroes” series

Jersey, grew up in Somerville, went on to be a Robeson was the most persecuted, the most on. In addition to having cultural centers football star and class valedictorian (and only ostracized, the most condemned black man in named after him at Rutgers University’s African-American student) at Rutgers in New America, then or ever.” f lagship campus in New Brunswick/ Brunswick, which was then a small, private all- Robeson, who died in Philadelphia in 1976, Piscataway and a satellite campus in male college. He then moved to Harlem where has left quite a legacy in the New York-New Newark, a library at another satellite campus he got his start in the theater and attended Jersey area. in Camden is named for him. The former Columbia Law School. !e home where Robeson lived from 1939- football star was posthumously inducted into Robeson went on to be a star as a singer, 41 at 555 Edgecombe Ave. in Manha#an was the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985. (LeQuire "nds Roberson’s rendition of “Old named for him a&er his death in 1976 and was In 2004, the Paul Robeson commemorative Man River” particularly powerful) in the theater added to the National Register of Historic postage stamp became the 27th in the and on the big screen and eventually became Places the same year. !e building sits on what Black Heritage Series. The stamp unveiling involved in the civil rights movement. He became was once the corner of Edgecombe and 160th ceremony, attended by Paul Robeson Jr., known as a symbol in the war against fascism Street. In late September it was renamed Paul took place in his native Princeton. abroad and racism in the a&er Robeson Boulevard and Count Basie Place (for The now six-member exhibit will be on <

= spending a few years living in Europe and the jazz pianist and composer William “Count” display at the LeQuire Gallery in February. Soviet Union. Although he was befriended by the Basie, like Robeson a New Jersey native). Paul Sculpting Armstrong will also be a labor of <27F / likes of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman Robeson High School, which specializes in love for LeQuire. “If I’m lucky I’ll get lost in it for being an outspoken advocate of civil rights business and technology, is on Albany Avenue and I’ll wake up and say, ‘Where did that come and social justice, Robeson found himself in the in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. from?’ ” LeQuire says of his previous works. It took LeQuire eight years to complete Athena, which stands nearly 42 feet tall and crosshairs of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and targeted !ere are also schools named for Robeson in “It’s an act of pure love. You lose yourself in the =5@/>6A(23 is the largest free-standing interior statue B as a threat by those who favored the status quo. Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington D.C. act of creating something and then you have in the Western world >6= In the words of writer Lloyd Brown, “Paul Across the Hudson, Robeson’s name lives the result.”

P R E S T I G E N E W YO R K 66 H O L I D A Y 2009 H O L I D A Y 2009 67 P R E S T I G E N E W YO R K