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There are plenty of schlongs in art

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I have to say that is one of the best retorts I've heard in years.  Maggi Hambling was having none of the criticism to her nude depiction of Mary Wollstonecraft, especially since it came mostly from stuffy old men whose schlongs have probably shriveled up.  "Criticism has got to be like water off a duck's back," she said her art teacher once told her.  However it is just not men who hate the sculpture.   Rhiannon Lucy Cosslet finds it needlessly distracting.  Still, you wonder why Hambling would choose to portray the feminist icon in this way.  

Hambling is renown for her art and sculptures over the years, often finding unusual ways to present her subjects, such as a giant scallop shell honoring Benjamin Britten on the beach at Aldeburgh in Suffolk.  The piece was also met with criticism, but since has become a popular tourist stop.  So, controversy isn't necessarily a bad thing.

No doubt more Britons are becoming familiar with Mary Wollstonecraft than otherwise would if she had simply been draped in clothing from her era.  The author of Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, would have slipped into the background of the city, as most sculptures do.  People are taking notice, even draping the sculpture as if Mary is somehow embarrassed by all this attention.   Hard to say what Wollstonecraft would have thought of such a depiction.  Maybe a wry smile?

It is more the spirit of the feminist icon that Hambling wanted to capture, challenging our assumptions, especially in this MeToo era.  Mary seems to be rising up on a giant plume, as if overcoming the centuries of male oppression to appear unscathed by the male order that she so strenuously questioned.  

We forget that Wollstonecraft's life was intertwined with the early years of the French Revolution.  She wrote one of the more cogent appraisals of the infamous uprising: criticizing the Reign of Terror but at the same time commending what the revolution stood for.  She was particularly indignant of Edmund Burke's dismissal of the "furies from hell."  Wollstonecraft noted that these were angry women visibly upset with the massive food shortages while the King and Queen lounged at Versailles.  Burke had idealized Marie Antoinette, whereas Wollstonecraft saw her as a femme fatale.  Her account remained virtually unread until renewed interest in Wollstonecraft emerged with the feminist movement in Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

She had a tumultuous life, ending in tragedy when she died giving birth to her second child, Mary Godwin.  Not quite 40, there was much more she would have written on the vindication of the rights of men and women, but that was left to the women that followed her.  For over a century, the only monument that stood for her was her raised slab at Bournemouth.  Now, we have another monument to contemplate her rich contributions.  

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