Police Memorial

A detailed Summary of Police Memorial

Throughout Battery Park, in downtown New York City, the sculpture I found to be most intriguing is the New York City Police Memorial, by Stuart B. Crawford. Memorials and monuments create solid, deeper meaning to the public. This is because memorials contain certain information, which is clear to the viewers. This New York Police Memorial serves as a constant reminder of the officers who have past away serving the people of the city. The emotion that this piece emits is very different compared to sculptures by Alexander Calder or Ned Smyth's The Upper Room which therefore produce a different kind of interaction of the audience and the piece. In my analysis, I will have a well thought out argument on the reactions of the public to works of public art. I will discus how the Police Memorial's historical background and how it was developed. I will furthermore provide a formal description of the Memorial and how the work functions.

When an artist displays a work of art in a public place he or she must take into consideration many different aspects before making the structure. The degree of interaction that may take place between the public and the work of art is well thought out by the artists. The artist considers

As I explained, the Police Memorial creates different emotions than the works of Ned Smyth and Alexander Calder. The main components in this difference of interaction are; color, medium, style and location. Each of the artists I discussed, carefully thought out the details of their work in order to gain specific reactions from the viewers. I feel that all of the artists are successful because the people that interact with the works react in the ways the artist intended. These artists not only created works of Art, but they create different moods upon all of their viewers. As I have come into contact with all of these pieces, I noticed my mood was quite different for each.

In comparing the Police Memorial to the works done by Alexander Calder, a sculptor of mid-twentieth century, I find that his works were more playful and pleasing to the eye. He made large metal, mobile-like pieces that stand outside buildings. His purpose behind the pieces were simpler, it was more a study of forms, shapes, color and balance. So people are attracted to the sculpture because it is a definition of what Art is. Thus they can relate structures like these more to art then the Police Memorial. Calder's pieces do not function like Smyth's and Crawford's.

The Police Memorial has three walls that make up a rectangular shape. But the structure is split up into two different sections. Looking at the work, you notice that the left side is a long skinny fountain that leads to the right, where the water is disposed into a little pool. Directly next to the water is a green granite wall, which is approximately six feet tall. The granite wall is very thick and highly polished. Engraved directly on the stone are the names of the deceased police officers. They are listed in alphabetical order by last name according to the year of death from the earliest in 1854 up to the most recent death, in 1996. On the center wall lies a plaque, which states "Dedicated to the memory of those members of the police department who lost their lives in service to the people

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Approximate Word count = 1387
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts