Unknown Prisoner

Artist / Maker Christian Petersen (Danish - American, 1885 - 1961)

Date1951-1952

OriginUSA

MediumPlaster

Dimensions15 1/2 x 9 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. (39.4 x 23.8 x 19.1 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Helen J. Sebek. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2000.6

Status

Not on view

Collections

Label TextThe sculpture does not represent a crucifixion, for he has been strapped face first to the slab; the man’s anonymity makes him a symbol of all the victims of the war and of all oppression and warfare in the future. We do not know exactly when Petersen began working on his idea for Unknown Prisoner, but we do know that he entered his proposal in a 1952 international sculpture competition, sponsored by the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, on the theme of “The Unknown Political Prisoner.” The enduring effects of World War II, which morphed into the tensions of the Cold War and the atomic age, seem to have been much on the artist’s mind, as well as fears about their effects on the individuals who, inevitably, suffer from them. His war sculptures and proposals for memorials suggest that the translation of inhumane impulses into the torture of actual persons, as shown in Unknown Prisoner, is a subject properly explored in an educational setting. We also know that Petersen intended this sculpture, like Christ with Bound Hands, to be monumental, for he made numerous sketches that projected it as a massive and dominant feature in the landscape.

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