The National Geographic Society Wanted to Destroy Its Celebrated Outdoor Sculpture to Create a Plaza. Now a Fierce Backlash May Save It

Plans to renovate and expand the entry plaza of the National Geographic Society in Washington,
DC, which would have included the controversial removal
of Marabar, an acclaimed
1984 sculptural installation by American artist Elyn Zimmerman, have run into a speed
bump.

After getting more than two dozens letters of
protest regarding the proposed removal of the artwork,
including one from Adam Weinberg, the director of the Whitney
Museum of American Art, the city’s Historic Preservation Review
Board has reconsidered its approval of the project, which was
issued last August.

The board is now advising the National Geographic
Society to revise its blueprints and “strongly consider
retaining the sculpture in some form, possibly relocating it
somewhere on the site as part of a new concept, or if not, why that
is not at all possible,” said panel chairwoman Marnique
Heath at a meeting yesterday, as reported by the New York Times.

“I was delighted and a little surprised,” Zimmerman admitted to Artnet News. “I
didn’t have much hope. I’ve heard from a lot of artists who make
work in the environment, and everybody has their war
stories… There’s not a good track record for saving a lot of
these art pieces.”

The advocacy group the Cultural Landscape Foundation
mounted a campaign to save
the work on March 31 as part of its efforts to preserve
threatened works of landscape architecture. The organization argued
that the National Geographic Society had neglected to mention the
artwork or its importance in presenting its initial renovation plans from
Hickok Cole Architects.

Foundation CEO Charles A. Birnbaum applauded the board’s
decision to reconsider granting project approval, and urged
National Geographic in a statement to work with
its architects and Zimmerman “to develop a design that meets
the society’s programmatic needs and
retains Marabar.”

The society declined to comment on the decision, but had argued
previously through a lawyer that “Marabar is not
historic” and that its removal was necessary to build a
much-needed entrance pavilion that would provide one singular
access point to its three main buildings.

“There’s enough room there to accommodate both things, I
believe,” said Zimmerman, who is open to helping draw up solutions
that might involve enclosing Marabar within the pavilion.
“I’m hoping that National Geographic and their new architects will
consider having me as part of their team.”

When the society first decided to remove Marabar,
the project architects invited Zimmerman to relocate the piece at
the National Geographic’s expense.

“They said they were going to remove Marabar, and would
I like to come by and pick up the rocks,” Zimmerman recalled. “For
a minute I thought it was a crank call! Like I’m going to drive by
with my pickup truck and grab a quarter-of-a-million pound
stone.”

Zimmerman claimed she was unable to find a suitable alternative
home for the massive, technically complex work, which involves
a hydroelectric system to keep water flowing. Mined from a
granite quarry in South Dakota, the boulders in the work
collectively weigh over a million pounds, and were installed in
their current location only after the plaza was engineered to hold
them.

“I don’t know if it can be moved physically,” Zimmerman
cautioned. “It’s not impossible, but it would be very
difficult.”

Named after the Indian caves featured in E.M. Forster’s “A
Passage to India,” Marabar features five
boulders surrounding a 60-foot-long rectangular pool of water. It
was the artist’s first large-scale and permanent public
artwork.

Before the Cultural Landscape Foundation got involved, the
artist didn’t believe it would be possible to oppose the will of
National Geographic, which is owned by corporate giants 21st
Century Fox and Disney. “I’m too old to waste the last few years of
my life fighting them,” Zimmerman said. “I was resigned to the fact
that it was going to be destroyed.”

The post The National Geographic Society Wanted to Destroy
Its Celebrated Outdoor Sculpture to Create a Plaza. Now a Fierce
Backlash May Save It appeared first on artnet News.