Manhattan Medusa statue intended as homage to #MeToo movement slated by critics

The newest work by artist Luciano Garbati 'Medusa With The Head of Perseus' slated by critics

Credit: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Placed across the road from Manhattan’s Supreme Court where Harvey Weinstein stood trial, a seven-foot sculpture of Medusa holding the head of Perseus was intended to be a homage to female empowerment and the #MeToo movement.

But the reaction was not quite what the artist, Luciano Garbati, or the promoters of the project had expected — as critics ridiculed the work and feminists took to social media to question why a male sculptor had been chosen at all.

It was a less than auspicious welcome for the statue, which was unveiled on Tuesday.

Mr Garbati, who created the work in 2008, saw it as a feminist reworking of Benvenuto Cellini’s 16th-century bronze, “Perseus With the Head of Medusa".

In the original statue, which stands in the centre of Florence, Perseus is depicted holding up the severed head of the gorgon, Medusa.

The statue was faithful to the myth that Medusa had been raped by Poseidon. 

Infuriated that her temple had been defiled, the goddess Athena blamed her handmaiden, Medusa, turning her into a snake-haired gorgon capable of turning any onlooker into stone.

Mr Garbati, an Argentine-Italian sculptor, decided to reverse the narrative.

The newly installed statue of "Medusa With The Head of Perseus has faced criticism

Credit: Michael Santiago/Getty

In his sculpture, it is Medusa who is clutching the head of Perseus as Mr Garbati sought to question "the mythic figure’s characterisation as a monster, and investigates the woman behind the myth."

Ten years after creating the statue, Mr Garbati posted an image on social media and the image went viral.

The statue, seen as an avatar for female rage, had been kept at Mr Garbati’s studio in Buenos Aires. In 2018 it was brought to New York and exhibited in the Bowery.

Mr Garbati then applied to New York’s Art in the Parks programme for his work to be exhibited in Collect Pond Park opposite the courthouse.

Cellini’s original statue, Mr Garbati said in his application, had “communicated to women for millennia that if they are raped, it is their fault.”

Online reaction was less than fulsome.

"The Ooh-La-La Fake Feminism of That Big Naked Medusa Statue By the Courthouses."
Your thoughts? https://t.co/pMhB1nXQpr via @curbed

— Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) October 13, 2020

Wagatwe Wanjuki, a feminist activist, wrote on Twitter: "#MeToo was started by a black woman, but a sculpture of a European character by a dude is the commentary that gets centred? Sigh.”

Others mocked the statue itself, noting, for example, it lacked pubic hair.

Had the work accurately reflected the myth, Medusa would have been brandishing the head of her rapist, Poseidon, not Perseus.

"If this is supposed to be so empowering for women, why is Medusa so skinny and pube-less? This seems more like some man’s fantasy than a statement a commentary on sexual assault," wrote a Twitter user.

New York art critic Jerry Saltz was even more scathing about what he described as an "idiotic, generic, realist bronze sculpture."

Well I'm glad a Sports Illustrated swim suit issue Medusa statue has solved sexism for us. Let's all move on now, shall we?

— Sheila Regan (@Sheila_Regan) October 13, 2020

Writing in New York Magazine, Mr Saltz pulled no punches. "Don’t even try to figure out why it now stands across the street from the County Criminal Courthouse. 

"This ooh-la-la monstrosity is sure to be a lightning rod for zealots protesting nudity and a co-star in endless selfies."

Another Twitter user, Eirene Vapor, added: "Pretty sure most people are just going to be confused about why there’s a naked woman statue out in the public area, and those who do know the story are going to be annoyed that it’s been screwed up…"

Mr Garbati was at least supported by Bek Andersen, a photographer who worked with the sculptor to get his work installed in Manhattan.

“To me, it’s exciting that an artist is a man,” she said in an interview. “I think men feel left out of the #MeToo conversation, and I think they’re afraid of what it means for them."