statues of Junípero Serra

The Father Serra statue at the Mission San Buenaventura in Ventura, California, representing Junípero Serra, the founder of the mission, was commissioned by Ventura County through the Works Progress Administration as part of the Federal Art Project in 1935. This statue, made of concrete from a clay model by Uno John Palo Kangas, was originally placed in 1936 in a prominent location in a public park across the street from the Ventura County Courthouse. After the Courthouse was repurposed as Ventura City Hall, the statue was designated as City of Ventura Historic Landmark No. 3 in 1974. As deterioration of the concrete statue became a concern, a wood replica was created by local carvers and used to make a bronze cast. The concrete statue was replaced by the bronze cast in 1989. The wood replica was set in the atrium of the city hall for public display.

The public display of statuary honoring Serra has been a source of controversy, particularly among those alleging that Serra was responsible for the suppression of the culture of Chumash people. The city council decided in 2020 to remove the bronze statue and the wood replica from public display. The bronze sculpture was installed in the mission garden in 2024.

Description

The statue, standing nine feet four inches (2.84 m) in height, shows Serra standing with his head facing to the left and wearing a Franciscan cassock with cowl, sandals, and a rope belt (or cincture), a rosary hanging from the belt, a book in his left hand, and a walking stick (or staff) in his right hand.

History

In 1935, Uno John Palo Kangas (1904–1957), a sculptor born in Finland and raised in Michigan, was commissioned by Ventura County and the Works Progress Administration to create a statue of Serra as part of the Federal Art Project. Kangas was paid $5,000 for his work. Kangas had gained some acclaim in 1935 for a heroic statue of a Civilian Conservation Corps worker titled "Conservation of Man and Nature" that was installed at Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

The clay sculpture

Kangas began by visiting the Santa Barbara and Ventura missions to study images of Serra and to learn about his life and style of dress. He also made multiple sketches in preparation for the work. The sculpting process began with the creation of a full-size clay model; the clay model took four months to complete and was built at Kangas's studio at 3929 Fountain Avenue in Los Angeles. The clay sculpture was built around a frame of wood and chicken wire which Kangas then covered with layers of clay. According to a contemporary of the artist, Kangas used Meiners Oaks resident Gordon Douglas as a model for the face of Serra. In August 1936, the Los Angeles Times published on its front page a large photograph of Kangas posing with the clay sculpture.

The disposition of the original clay sculpture is unknown. A newspaper story from April 1938 suggests that the original clay model may have been loaned to a museum in Butte, Montana, for an exhibition on scale models of sculpture. The story announced: "'Fray Junipero Serra', by John Palo-Kangas, one of the scale models of sculpture to be shown at the Butte Art Center, beginning on April 21st, is in the original at the Ventura county courthouse at San Buenaventura, Calif."

The concrete sculpture

Kangas built a breakaway mold of the clay sculpture using plaster of Paris. The mold was placed in front of the courthouse and a scaffolding was built around the mold. Kangas gathered sand and gravel from the Ventura River, which he used to make a concrete aggregate material that he poured on location into the mold. After the concrete hardened, the mold was removed and Kangas smoothed the outer surface.

On November 27, 1936, Kangas's concrete sculpture was unveiled in prominent location in a small public park across the street from the Ventura County Courthouse. The unveiling ceremony was attended by Kangas, Governor Frank Merriam, Mayor George A. Newell Jr., and other notable persons. In his speech, Gov. Merriam said: "A beautiful statue is about to be made visible, exemplifying the spirit of this pioneering priest – noble, brave and holy – a patriot of patriots." After the Courthouse was repurposed as Ventura City Hall, the small park was included in the property transfer. The concrete Father Serra statue was designated as City of Ventura Historic Landmark No. 3 in 1974.

By the 1980s, the statue had deteriorated from years of exposure to Ventura's salt air and from the pooling of rainwater in the collar of the figure's robe, which formed a basin. In addition, the statue was vandalized with paint and the City sandblasted the statue, damaging its smooth outer layer and accelerating the decay. The statue was removed from its pedestal in September 1989 to make room for installation of the bronze cast. The City planned to store the concrete statue until the completion of a planned farm implements museum, where it was to be installed. The inauguration of this museum was delayed when its chief proponent, Bob Pfeiler, became ill. In 1996, the concrete statue was discovered by a reporter for the Los Angeles Times in an industrial storage yard operated by Oilfield Service & Trucking Company (OST) along Ventura Avenue. A crane from OST had been used to remove the statue in 1989 and the statue was to have been temporarily stored at the OST yard. In 1997, the Historic Preservation Alliance of San Buenaventura put the "Original Junipero Serra statue, boxed up in an industrial yard at 2951 N. Ventura Ave." on a list of the top ten most endangered historical sites. As of April 2018, the concrete statue remained at the OST yard in a decaying wooden crate.

The wooden replica

Ownership of the concrete statue passed from Ventura County to the City of Ventura in 1971. In 1983, Ventura City Councilman Russell Burns, a mechanical engineer, presented a report to the city council describing the deterioration of the statue and concluding that the statue "in the not too distant future will fall apart." The City in 1984 commissioned studies of the statue by an art conservator, an engineering firm, and a concrete expert. The studies reached the conclusion that the statue should be moved inside and that it was too fragile to be copied by molding.

原文较长，这里只摘了前面一部分，摘自英文维基百科「Statues of Junípero Serra (Ventura, California)」（暂时没有中文条目，下面是英文原文），按 CC BY-SA 4.0 使用，去掉了参考文献、外部链接等尾部小节和表格，其余文字未作改动。