‘Total surprise’: Trump-appointed Charlotte sculptor ousted from national arts panel
The Biden administration this week booted four Trump appointees from an independent arts panel in what a Charlotte-based sculptor called “a total surprise.”
“In the art world, it’s not expected at all,” sculptor Chas Fagan told The Charlotte Observer about the Monday afternoon email requesting his resignation “within a couple of hours.”
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts advises the president and congress on the design of federal buildings and memorials in Washington and even the look of the coins in your pocket, according to the commission website.
Fagan and the others were told they had to resign by Monday night, May 24, a commission spokesperson told The Hill.
Fagan and the others dumped from the panel were appointed by then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 12, just before he left office, The New York Times reported.
On Tuesday, Biden said he would replace those commissioners, all white men, with people with “a diversity of background and experience, as well as a range of aesthetic viewpoints,” The Washington Post reported.
According to a White House news release, the new members include a Black woman, an Asian American woman and a Black man.
‘It was wonderful’
Fagan was given two hours to resign but was never told why he was being replaced, he told the Observer during a phone interview Wednesday.
“My takeaway is that it was only five months, but I really enjoyed it very much, really. I mean it’s a chance to see a whole bunch of project designs and collaborate with some incredible people, let alone the presenters, too. There were meetings where the presenters would show their work and ideas and bounce thoughts back and forth. It was wonderful.”
“The only sad part,” Fagan said, “is the fact that I would not have the opportunity to do more with this same group. It was very enjoyable, and the projects, some of them were just fascinating.
“You’ve got coin designs for the quarter and commemorative dollar coins for different states, things like that, of course, are right up my alley. And there were memorial concepts to be worked through. It was very rewarding.”
Biden move criticized
Conservative publications immediately decried the ousters.
“An unprecedented purge,” The Federalist called Biden’s move, while noting the many accomplishments of the artists replaced on the commission.
“Fagan is a renowned sculptor and painter whose statue of former President Ronald Reagan stands in the Capitol Rotunda, and whose statue of Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks stands in the National Cathedral,” The Federalist reported.
The online publication also noted Fagan’s painting of “the Vatican’s official portrait of St. Mother Teresa and first lady Barbara Bush’s official portrait.”
Fagan laughed when asked by the Observer if he was a political guy or expected politics when he was appointed to the commission.
He’d vaguely heard about the commission before his appointment, Fagan said. “I didn’t know anything about it and was just asked” to be a member, he said.
“It was a great chance to contribute and help,” he said.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, the monthly meetings were held over Zoom. Commissioners normally serve four-year terms, according to the Post.
Biden’s replacements will bring “a wider range of aesthetic viewpoints,” an administration official told The Times.
“I know that the new commissioners — it’s a lot of work — but I know they’re going to enjoy it a lot, and I wish them the best,” Fagan told the Observer.
Billy Graham statue
Fagan’s other major works include oil portraits of every U.S. president. And he said he’s awaiting the next step from a joint congressional committee as to when the model of his statue of the Rev. Billy Graham will grace the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.
“I haven’t heard a thing,” he said.
The statue will replace one of Charles Aycock, a governor and white supremacist, that’s represented North Carolina there since 1932, the Observer previously reported.
In Charlotte, Fagan’s life-size bronze sculptures of such historical figures as Catawba chief King Hagler (1750s) and Mecklenburg County settler Thomas Spratt grace Little Sugar Creek Greenway, as part of the Trail of History public arts project.
This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 2:11 PM.