Oscar Wilde’s grandson condemns ‘hideous’ new statue of the playwright

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Oscar Wilde’s grandson has condemned a new sculpture of the playwright that depicts him as a segmented head.

The black bronze sculpture, designed by the late Scottish pop artist Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, is set to be brought to be a public garden in Chelsea, south-west London, near the site of Wilde’s former home.

Merlin Holland, an expert on Wilde and the literary icon’s only grandchild, described the sculpture as “hideous”, arguing that it would evoke memories of Wilde’s death.

“I’m all for any sort of innovations in modern art. But this does seem to me to be unacceptable. It looks absolutely hideous,” he told The Observer.

Wilde, who was best known for writing plays such as The Importance of Being Ernest and Lady Windermere's Fan, as well as the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, died of meningitis at the age of 46. Prior to his death, Wilde had been imprisoned after being convicted of gross indecency for homosexual acts.

Holland continued: “[The sculpture] seems to say ‘here is a monument to a man whom society decapitated’.

“How do we want to remember him? Amusing, ­entertaining, engaging or carved up and beheaded for breaking the law of the time? I know which I prefer.”

Paolozzi, who died in 2005, first submitted designs for the sculpture in 1995, avering that a statue of Wilde needed to be conceptual, rather than representational (realistic).

An image of the sculpture design can be seen here.

A committee tasked with commissioning a sculpture of Wilde – on which Holland served, alongside Sir Jeremy Isaacs, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, and Seamus Heaney – ultimately rejected the design for being “too brutalist”.

The Paolozzi Foundation, a charity dedicated to the artist, has pushed for the statue to be comissioned and installed in London’s Dovehouse Green – near Wilde’s home and the late artist’s studio – to mark the centenary of Paolozzi’s birth.

In a statement provided to The Observer, the Paolozzi Foundation said: “The foundation takes the view that everyone is entitled to their opinion, including Oscar Wilde’s grandson. We also note that the Oscar Wilde Society is fully supportive.”

On its website, the organisation also notes of the sculpture: “This will be a monumental work, bringing together two Titans of the arts who lived and worked in Chelsea.”

The sculpture is similar in concept to another of Paolozzi’s works, Head of Invention, which is displayed outside Kensington’s Design Museum. This work also comprises a segmented head lying on its side, this time adorned with quotes by Leonardo di Vinci.