Tucson's Public Art

Title: The Kino Memorial, Mattonri MacIntosh Young (1936)

Location: Sunset Park, 255 West Alameda Avenue, behind the Pima County Courthouse.

Details: Bronze Bas-Relief

He Said:

Here's a piece of "Traditional Art," the sort that forms the mainstay of most publicly accessible art in the United States. Staid, semi-educational, and representing something of import in the local history (the overall bas-relief shows Fr. Kino walking with a desert backdrop, presumably bringing religion to the Native Americans), but boring overall and as far as art goes. Sometimes, though, one can look at the details and find something fun: here, a roadrunner about to have lunch, elsewhere on the sculpture a Gila monster stumping along purposefully.

She Said:

Here's a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. My partner evidently finds this piece traditional and boring, though possessed of and enlivened by small, quirky details. I rather like the Kino plaque, not only for the roadrunner and its lunch, but also for the piece of Tucson's history that's illustrated in the work.