There are four plinths in front of the National Gallery and it was the Mayor’s idea to display different current sculptures on the fourth plinth in rotation every few months.
The current sculpture is Lady In Blue, the creation of Tschabalala Self.
Self was born in Harlem and lives and works in the Hudson Valley, New York, as her bio describes her. She is slim, unlike the Lady In Blue. Self says the work was inspired by:
a desire to bring a contemporary ‘everywoman’ to Trafalgar Square, a woman striding forward into our collective future with ambition and purpose. She is a Londoner, who represents the city’s spirit.
To me she looks like a comical take on humanity, and not heroic. That said, in her day Beryl Cook figures, like in this painting of women out clubbing were very popular and didn’t make people feel mocked, but rather they made people feel included.
Why an American Artist for a London Plinth?
The Mayor of London and Arts Council England run the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group as an international competition with the idea of making Trafalgar Square ‘a global hub for world-class contemporary art’. It is specifically not limited exclusively to UK nationals, and commissions have included artists from Germany, the US, and Mexico. Still, most of the sculptures have been from British artists. So there!
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