Mother Peace (1969-70) is a six-ton, painted steel sculpture by American artist Mark di Suvero (b. 1933). It generated significant controversy when it was installed in front of the Alameda County Courthouse for seven months in 1974-75.
It was the first installation of the Oakland Museum of California’s ambitious “Public Sculpture / Urban Environment” exhibition, curated by George W. Neubert. Running September 29 - December 29, 1974, the show featured some 50 pieces, including Judy Chicago’s pyrotechnic A Butterfly for Oakland. Many pieces remained in place for some time and several of the pieces are on permanent display at the museum. Funding for the show came from private donors and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mother Peace was installed on August 15, 1974. On February 20, 1975, after much debate, the Oakland City Council voted to remove the sculpture, and it was deinstalled March 11-12, 1975. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Lewis E. Lercara had described it as a “gallows.” Originally, the full exhibition had been enthusiastically approved by the city-appointed Oakland Museum Commission, though without reviewing every piece closely.
In this same time period, the Vietnam War and the convulsive national debates surrounding that war were coming to an end, with Saigon falling on April 30, 1975. Besides being an artist, di Suvero was also a longtime, high-profile antiwar activist. The cutout peace symbol in Mother Peace seemed to prompt a significant share of the controversy in Oakland.
From May 2013 to May 2014, Mother Peace returned as one of eight di Suvero pieces on temporary display at San Francisco’s Crissy Field, organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Park Service, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.
Mother Peace is owned by the Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York, and is on permanent display there.
References
Mark di Sivero timeline: https://www.spacetimecc.com/Exhibition-History-and-Chronology
Exhibition catalog: Public Sculpture / Urban Environment, by George W. Neubert, Oakland Museum of California, 1974
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Newspaper retrospective: “Remembering Mother Peace,” by Michael Dobrin, San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, Sunday, June 20, 1976, pp. 18ff. (252ff.)
Storm King Art Center (NY) online listing: Mother Peace
