The city of Boston unveiled a new memorial sculpture in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King on Friday. The reception for the 22-foot statue has been decidedly mixed — ranging from enthusiastic plaudits to consternation and outright jeers.
The monument, by artist Hank Willis Thomas, is called “The Embrace;” it is meant to honor the relationship between the Kings. It was specifically inspired by a 1964 photograph of the couple hugging after King had been announced as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
When Willis Thomas’ work was announced as a finalist in 2018, he emphasized that a physical embrace also offered a sense of spiritual and emotional protection. The finished piece is a 19-ton bronze work made up of over 600 pieces welded together. Below the statue, the plaza is decorated with diamond-shaped stones that evoke African-American quilting tradition.
This piece of public art, unveiled Friday, immediately garnered mixed reactions. In a long Twitter thread, Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah criticized the monument, saying that the artist “reduced” the Kings to “body parts,” adding: “For such a large statue, dismembering MLK and Coretta Scott King is… a choice. A deliberate one.” Attiah continued: “Boston’s Embrace statue perfectly represents how White America loves to butcher MLK. Cherry-picking quotes about love and violence. While ignoring his radicalism, anti-capitalism, his fierce critiques of white moderates. MLK in his fullness — is still too much for them.”
Others took a slightly less intellectual exception to Willis Thomas’ vision. In one of the more printable comments, Boston-based activist and writer Chip Goines wrote on Twitter: “I can’t shake the feeling that this view of ‘The Embrace’ sculpture from this angle looks like two disembodied arms & hands hugging a butt. …why do the MLK monuments have to be so bad?”
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