Photo: ceridwen creative commons
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill Statue Mayfair By Lawrence Holofcener
This seated Bronze statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill on a bench in Mayfair by Lawrence Holofcener is not dissimilar in quality to the Charlie Chaplin statue near Leicester Sq. Titled ‘Allies’ this kitsch masterpiece was a gift from the Bond Street Association (the shops and businesses of Bond Street) to the City of Westminster to commemorate 50 years of peace. Lawrence Holofcener, the sculptor unveiled it on 2 May 1995 with Princess Margaret. Just look at the animation in their faces. Lawrence Holofcener (born February 23, 1926, Baltimore, Maryland, United States) is an American poet, lyricist, playwright, artist, novelist, actor, director and sculptor. He has dual British and American nationality. His first exhibition was in 1979 at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina. It was followed by many shows, awards and commissions. During his exhibition at AT&T’s Education Center in Princeton, New Jersey, Lawrence produced The Box, a piece which was added to their collection. In 1985 at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Laurence Olivier unveiled Holofcener’s portrait, “Faces of Olivier”, and ten years later to the day on Bond Street in London, Princess Margaret unveiled his portraits of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. “Allies” has fast become one of London’s tourist attractions. Commissions include Queen Victoria for the Isle of Wight’s Museum of Island History and Coburg, Germany, as well as a life-size bronze of Thomas Paine at Bordentown, New Jersey. Other life-size portraits of Thomas Chatterton, William Tyndale and William Penn are in Bristol, England. In 1998, Holofcener embarked on a major series celebrating the contributions made by 20th Century icons, among them Albert Einstein, John F Kennedy, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, Anne Frank, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonard Bernstein, Albert Schweitzer, the Three Tenors and John Lennon.