Unconditional surrender by J Seward Johnson in honour of the 1200 daily deaths during world war 2, situated along bayfront driv
This statue is a series of sculptures by Seward Johnson resembling a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, V–J day in Times Square, but said by Johnson to be based on a similar, less well known, photograph by Victor Jorgensen. Seward Johnson first built a life-size bronze precursor to the huge statues of Unconditional Surrender, reportedly[citation needed] using computer technology. A 25-feet-tall styrofoam version of the work was part of a temporary exhibition in Sarasota, Florida in 2005, at its bay front. He proceeded with the manufacture of aluminum versions of the 25-feet-tall statue, marketing them through a foundation he had created. He offered copies ranging from $542,500 for styrofoam, $980,000 for aluminum, and $1,140,000 for bronze. Johnson established "The Sculpture Foundation" to disseminate his work. Interest in a revisit to Sarasota in 2009 was cultivated by a director of a bayfront biannual show and an aluminum copy was placed at the bayfront, again temporarily. An "88-year-old donor, who served in the Navy during World War II" offered to pay half a million dollars for it against an initial asking price of $680,000.[3] While some members of the community supported the statue, others felt the statue was not good enough to be displayed on the bay front. The Chairwoman of the Public Art Committee at the time said that "it doesn't even qualify as is like a giant cartoon image drafted by a computer emulating a famous photograph. It's not the creation of an artist. It's an artist copying a famous image." The lesser-known photograph by Victor Jorgensen of the same scene as Eisenstaedt's V–J day in Times Square. Joel May, a Sarasota architect and a member of the city's public art committee, raised an issue of possible copyright infringement, because of the similarity of the sculpture to Alfred Eisenstaedt's photograph V–J day in Times Square, published in Life in 1945 and still protected by copyright. Johnson said he was aware of this
Size: 3648px × 5472px
Photo credit: © Cayman / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 41, alfred, art, eisenstaedt, florida, frame, full, highway, johnson, sarasota, sculp, sculpture, seward, surrender, unconditional, usa, vertical
