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LEON KASS: He's interested in the heroic exploits of the individuals. In addition to those things,
the other thing he's doing is sending home statues of heroes of the Civil War, which
goes to battlefields and other places to keep alive the memory of individual greatness.
DIANA SCHAUB: So it's not only the energy but the gallantry.
BILL SCHAMBRA: Yeah, his sculptures aren't abstracts of Lady Liberty or Indian goddesses
or princesses... they're specific episodes in the American history. The pioneers. The
gold rush folks. The settlers. They're...They're sculptures that combine specific history of
this country with some sense of the larger principle that's behind it. They all symbolize
larger principles, but at the same they're quite specific and quite grounded in the history
of this place.
AMY KASS: They provide the robust national memory that is needed in order to perpetuate
that kind of attachment to America.
BILL SCHAMBRA: Well, let's explore there for a moment this question and the relationship
between art and stories. The art that Hartwell presents us with and the stories, the story
here that Cather writes.
DIANA SCHAUB: Yeah, I would say one thing about that, and I think you can see it in
what we're told of the sculpture. The sculpture of the color sergeant leaves out the gory
details of the actual incident. We're told that the young boy lost both of his arms,
both of them were shot off. Cather's story is somehow truer maybe than the sculpture.
The sculpture engages in a certain idealization or beautification. You could claim that it
captures the inner truth of the moment in beautifying it, it captures the young boy's
heart, but Cather's story seems to me more complete in that it captures all of those
elements and can present all of those elements to us.
AMY KASS: It enables us to experience what the young boy experienced, which we otherwise
would have no access to. So in that sense it certainly is fuller. And in that sense,
even the flag or an emblem or an image depends upon talking about it, talking with others
about it, to give it some meaning. It doesn't...you put the image up there, and it's not self
evident that it's going to speak to you in the way in which it speaks to this young man.
DIANA SCHAUB: And so that the literature can lead to a more mature patriotism, I guess
is what I would say. That Hartwell the sculptor is almost still in the grip of this kind of
boyish patriotism.
AMY KASS: He's in the grip of heat. He is...that's what he says. That's what the young artists
admire about him.