Monument Needs Display Venue(s)
Liberty (R)evolution
Art and politics were made for one another… Mighty political forces opposed Michelangelo, but forces beyond them placed him alone behind his tools. The master’s work stands, despite once being under Medici death warrant… Cold comfort – I too was born with a mission to make monuments…
Monuments have the last word… Communication for the masses…contemporaneous, intergenerational, even intercivilizational. Unlike other artforms, monuments are fixed — and they’re too big to ignore. Monuments are built to endure the elements, yet most can be moved to safety, making them worthy vessels for societal value(s). Civilizations have risen and fallen around monuments because some are valuable and valued enough to survive upheaval.
In the age of communication, the greatest challenge remains sending a message down time and ironically, that’s why I like to sculpt in wax. With digital scanning and 3D printing, wax “originals” can now be replicated in bronze, any size, small to huge. Will today’s digits be around in thousands of years? Bronze already has, but a digital world without liberty is unthinkable, so I make it my purpose to ring the Liberty Bell with my monuments. And yes I do want the last word...
Today a global war churns on many fronts. It’s a liberty revolution with much at stake. From farmers to convoys to warring nations and now states coalesce against states, it’s all about liberty.
My research into liberty began on 9/11 and I followed the thread to its roots; ancient Sumer and earlier and then back to America, even to its as yet unmet ultimate purpose: Liberty is the very path to our divinity.
In 2019 I was commissioned to create a 12 foot monument in bronze, but its title, Liberty (R)evolution, came to me in 2009, to describe my collection of some dozen massive wooden sculptures. The new sculpture shares that title, and is a paraphrase of that collection’s message. But this is not your grandmother’s liberty statue, it is tuned to reach a new generation. I create artillery designed to pierce the clutter of a culture war, in the process lending support to its counter-fronts.
I began with an acquired “rendition cast” of Michelangelo’s David — history’s epic liberator, because I like the way classical nudity says freedom and like Michelangelo, liberty is at the center of renaissance... I added to that my own, layered symbolism in wax, most of which came to me intuitively, but it matched my research perfectly.
A life-long poet, I captured that meaning in rhyme for the foundry to cast deep into the statue’s surface, still leaving room for viewer participation. Along with the wooden collection, the three record the extreme antiquity and divine potential of liberty. That poem now rides aboard the monument, potentially for thousands of years…
Liberty (R)evolution by Matthew Welter (detail)
This sculpture is designed to be replicated in all sizes and to reside with liberty lovers far and wide. And some of those will find fertile soil in the minds of tomorrow’s people (see more images and in-depth meaning).
In 2023 that monument was scheduled to be in a world-famous art show. “The biggest international art show in America” — and just in time for perhaps the most consequential election in world history.
But like our founders, liberty is being systematically wiped from history, starting with huge, long lasting public monuments (Just ask BLM and Antifa…). Just before the exhibition, collectivist PC police stepped in. In the corrupted public art market, political cancellations happen quietly, with always a cover reason (Peter Serefine lays the process out brilliantly in this article). This artwork commits three unforgivable sins… It glorifies Liberty in a way that speaks to today, it can last thousands of years and it can be replicated in any size. We need a fresh, durable symbol to gather around, since liberty is the thread that runs through all of the toppled statues and all of the current turmoil.
Matthew “Timeless” Welter with his work, Liberty (R)evolution
Bad news, the sculpture now lies idle in its crate as a real-live liberty revolution rages. Good news, it is professionally crated and ready to ship anywhere.
What if Liberty (R)evolution were passed around between high-profile establishments like Trump properties through the next administration, whoever that may be — and to Liberty-loving institutions thereafter… And what if white-hat media were to take interest? (Please suggest…)
Who can help put me in touch, dear reader? Please consider what venue(s) will allow Liberty (R)evolution’s honest nudity and fresh perspective on liberty and its dual-ganer styling. This sculpture is already controversial, so any venue must be resilient.
Please share your ideas…and let’s let liberty have the last word.