Washington’s New World War I Memorial Is Defiantly Traditional
Published: 12 September 2024
By | Photographs by Ting Shen for WSJ
via the Wall Street Journal website
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Installing ‘A Soldier’s Journey’ at the World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C., Aug. 30.
The capital’s monuments to the Vietnam War and World War II were criticized as depressing and ungainly, but a 58-foot-long sculpture by artist Sabin Howard tells a classic story of heroism.
On Friday night, Washington, D.C.’s National World War I Memorial will unveil the most important piece of civic art installed in the city in decades: “A Soldier’s Journey,” a monumental bronze panel sculpture by artist Sabin Howard. At 58 feet long, it is the largest free-standing bronze in the Western Hemisphere, with 38 full-size figures in high-relief.
With the National Mall closed to new monuments, the World War I Memorial opened in 2021 in Pershing Park, on Pennsylvania Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets. It’s an appropriate setting: The park, which borders the Commerce Department and the venerable Willard Hotel and has direct sightlines to the Treasury Department and the U.S. Capitol, is named for Gen. John J. Pershing, the commander of American forces in World War I. A statue of Pershing has stood in the park since 1981, and the Memorial also includes an ornate granite wall inscribed with maps and a history of American combat operations in what was originally called the Great War.
“A Soldier’s Journey” is the last part of the Memorial to be completed. It depicts a doughboy—as American soldiers in World War I were called—on an archetypal hero’s journey, from leaving home through the horror of battle and back to his family. Along with racially and sexually diverse supporting figures, the recurring central figure gives unity to the composition. “I wanted to tell a universal story through the experience of one soldier,” says Howard.
The neoclassical form of the sculpture may be as significant as the subject matter. It is a heroic monument in what many would consider an unheroic age. Howard describes the work as bringing the sacred into the present day.
Installing ‘’A Soldier’s Journey,’ Aug. 30.
Sculptor Sabin Howard.
The contrast between “A Soldier’s Journey” and Washington’s other war memorials is stark. Surprisingly, perhaps, there were no national war memorials in the capital until 1982, when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated. Designed by Maya Lin, then an undergraduate at Yale, the stark V-shaped wall of black granite descending into the ground displayed the names of the 58,318 Americans who died or went missing in the conflict.
A deliberately unheroic reflection of America’s most controversial war, Lin’s design sparked intense criticism. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, James Webb, soon to become Navy Secretary, blasted it as a “nihilistic statement” and a “travesty.” The Vietnam Veterans Memorial eventually became one of the Capital’s most-visited sites, but continuing criticism of the design led to the addition in 1984 of a more traditional sculpture—three bronze servicemen in a static pose, looking toward the wall.
The memorials to the Korean War and World War II are less provocative than the abstract void of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but they too sparked controversies. The Korean War Veterans Memorial, dedicated in 1995, is located on the National Mall just southeast of the Lincoln Memorial. It was designed to be understated, perhaps befitting America’s “forgotten war.” But it was criticized for having too many conflicting elements, including a small reflective pool circled by a grove; panels with the names of over 36,500 Americans killed in the war; walls honoring America’s U.N. partners; and a mural etched with 2,400 photographs. The centerpiece is a triangular open field on which 19 stainless steel figures represent an Army platoon in mid-patrol.
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