Public Art Gone Wrong? San Diego’s Embracing Peace by John Seward Johnson II

Feeling good. I’m going with it.

Hi, I’m Bob Pincus, art critic and professor, and this is Art with Bob. Today we’re talking about one of San Diego’s most well-known public art sculptures, John Seward Johnson’s Embracing Peace.

This sculpture over my shoulder here sits right near the USS Midway Museum, an aircraft carrier turned into a museum. The entire thing, the complex here is a big tourist attraction. Part of the reason it’s popular is because San Diego is a big military town. I mean, there are at least 120,000 active military.

The sculpture itself is a kind of de facto icon for San Diego like Balboa Park. People love to pose with it. You know, mimic the sculpture

If you’re wondering looking over my shoulder here, it’s twenty-five feet tall. It was originally done in polyurethane foam done as a computer generated sculpture from a smaller version and then people were so sad about it having to leave that they raised enough money, almost a million dollars to create the bronze version which stands here now and decided to re-title it Embracing Peace cause Unconditional Surrender was not as well received.

My relationship with the John Seward Johnson sculpture Embracing Peace goes back to 2007 when it first went up in San Diego. And I went out there as the critic of the San Diego Union Tribune to write a review. When my review appeared, it got hundreds of letters halfway divided between good and bad opinions of the sculpture. And the review got quite a bit of attention outside of San Diego because of the controversy surrounding the sculpture. So I ended up back at the site, you know, talking about it for CBS on their morning show.

When John Stuart Johnson’s Embracing Peace was approved by the Public Art Committee of the Port of San Diego, one of the members made this comment: “Well, it’s very kitschy, but it’s also popular.”

Why bring the word kitschy in? Well, now kitsch is really things that are considered to be quite tacky or kind of brash, formulaic. Things that, you know, sometimes people think are so bad they’re good. Fans of Embracing Peace don’t really wanna think of it in those terms, as if it was something so bad it’s good. Now, I would just add that maybe it’s iconic for San Diego, but it’s not successful as art.

The pose in the sculpture is taken from a very famous photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt called V-J Day at Times Square. And the man in the photograph, which you see kissing the nurse, was actually grabbing random women and kissing them. And at one point Mr. Eisenstaedt clicked the shot.

You can imagine how that idea of grabbing random women changed over time, and the sculptor titled it “Unconditional Surrender,” which seemed to draw some consternation and attention to that fact. Now of course the sculpture has changed titles, Embracing Peace with the bronze version.

Alfred Eisenstadt was a firm believer in black and white photography. He made this clear when I interviewed him in 1994. He said that color is only good for fashion and flowers.

If you were to go look at the plaque for this sculpture, you would notice there’s no mention of Alfred Eisenstaedt. And there’s a good reason for that. When he made this sculpture, Mr. Johnson, in 2005, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of V-J Day, he sought permission. And Life magazine, which held the rights of the picture, turned him down. So Mr. Johnson tried to come up with a clever scheme. There was one other photographer who took pictures of the same couple kissing. The problem was it wasn’t the same pose. So when he made the sculpture with the Eisenstaedt pose, he ended up getting sued by Life magazine.

The suit was settled out of court. The sculpture exists as it is. But obviously, you cannot make any mention of the sculptor, excuse me, of the photographer. My personal view of this sculpture is that it takes a well-executed photograph and turns it into a oversized novelty.

The colorized version, the gaudy colors added, bring in the people. It’s a magnet for tourists and anybody else coming by. But looking at it again, you have to think the sexist undercurrent of this piece suggests should it have been a sculptor at all.

Thanks for watching. And if you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel. Again, I’m Bob Pincus and this is Art with Bob. And there’ll be future episodes about art, art history, and the art community.

This video was produced and edited by
Matthew Manly Pincus / MP Storytelling