Another Abstract Public Artwork Faces Trump’s Senseless Ire

President Donald Trump criticized the Smithsonian Institution on Truth Social on Friday, September 11, calling for the National Museum of American History to install a 30-foot-tall statue of George Washington and mount a five-year exhibition on Washington as “America’s Greatest Hero.” Trump suggested the statue should replace José de Rivera’s kinetic stainless-steel sculpture “Infinity” (1967), the US government’s first abstract art commission, which has stood outside the museum for nearly 60 years and rotates every eight minutes. He also urged the museum to display an existing 11-foot Washington statue outside Flag Hall for a Constitution Day celebration on Thursday, September 17, and tied the proposed programming to Washington’s 300th birthday in 2032. Trump argued the museum’s America 250 efforts under “recently ended” leadership had not sufficiently celebrated the Founding Fathers, referencing Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III’s retirement announcement and criticizing the museum’s now-defunct Center for Restorative History and Decolonization Working Group.

Read the full article at Hyperallergic