Have you ever wanted to take a vacation to Europe and tour some of the houses and museums that contain famous art that you’ve only seen in pictures? It’s a common desire, and if you’ve ever seen one of these with your own eyes, you know that it’s an experience you can’t duplicate with photos or virtual tours.
For example, did you know that Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings have such thick, textured paint that the actual piece is three-dimensional? If you stand in front of the actual painting Starry Night, you can see the deep texture of the paint and brush strokes popping off the canvas. You’d never know this, and never really experience the painting, if you only knew it from online images.
Maybe you’d like to see Michelangelo’s masterpiece statue depicting David. It’s in a gallery in Florence, a city you might want to see on its own for the glorious architecture, even if it didn’t have David and other Michelangelo masterpieces. But someone, or someones, seems to believe that world travelers visiting large cities should also have to see what they can’t escape at home, at least in the U.S.
Resentful-looking, looming black women on cell phones. Take a look at this “artistic” statue in the plaza just outside the gallery where David is featured.
Really take a good look at marvel at the realism. The artist captured the sullen, pissed-off look on the subject’s face, the same look we all see with people like this every day at grocery stores and malls.
It’s not just Florence. Huge statues of (mostly overweight) black women dressed in an American style are popping up in cities throughout the west. Here’s one that was put up in the Netherlands in 2023.
But wait, there are more:
One of those in the post above just got put up in Times Square in New York City. Though there is no signage on the statue, it should contain the legend, “Where da manager at?”
Let’s see what the Internet Public has to say about it. Naturally, someone pointed out that not liking the statue is racist.
A white lady with problem glasses did the usual thing they do, lecturing the original poster on how privileged white men are, which makes the statue necessary.
But most people called this what it is–deliberate uglification and aggression to put black Westerners on a literal pedestal.
