Statue of Naked Woman Is Blocked From National Mall

Statue of Naked Woman Is Blocked From National Mall

The National Park Service has blocked activists from installing a giant sculpture of a nude woman on the National Mall in Washington.

In a letter on Wednesday to the group seeking to install the statue, the park service’s acting regional director, Rick Obernesser, said that the agency had chosen to deny requests to put the 45-foot-tall sculpture, titled “R-Evolution,” “on the turf or hardscape near the Washington Monument.”

Placing the piece on the turf for 91 days was likely to “significantly damage” the grounds, he wrote. Putting such a tall sculpture near the base of the Washington Monument, he said, was “likely to have an adverse effect on the aesthetics, including the cultural identity, of the area.”

In its statement on Thursday, the group, Catharsis on the Mall, said it was “stunned” by what it said was the park service’s “sudden last-minute retraction.”

A spokeswoman for the group threatened legal action to defend what she said were its First Amendment rights.

“We received no indication of anything disqualifying in our permit application until the media began reporting on the story,” said Robert Haferd, a lawyer who sought the permit on behalf of the group.

Only then, organizers added, did the park service take issue with the impact the statue would have on the site.

A letter provided by Catharsis on the Mall on Thursday showed that park service officials had approved a so-called height variance in September so that the statue could be part of a demonstration in November.

That approval led the group to spend tens of thousands of dollars to prepare the piece, according to a statement from organizers.

But in his letter to the group on Wednesday, Mr. Obernesser said that the earlier height variance had been issued in error and had been revoked.

The park service issued a statement on Thursday that reiterated the arguments made in Mr. Obernesser’s letter. The “R-Evolution” statue, the statement said, was deemed to be “inconsistent with established resource protection guidelines and the public’s use and enjoyment of the National Mall.”

A spokesman for the park service, Michael Litterst, provided a copy of guidelines for the management of the National Mall turf, which allow structures to be erected for three to 10 days, depending on the season.

Organizers had asked to place the sculpture there for much longer, he said.

“In general the guidelines have been strictly enforced as a result of the recent $45 million restoration of the National Mall turf,” Mr. Litterst said in an email.

He also provided the National Mall’s event planning guide, which says that structures cannot be more than 45 feet in height. Documents show that although “R-Evolution” is only 45 feet tall, it also stands on a base that is about 2 feet tall, taking it over the height limit.

Activists had been working for weeks to raise money to transport the tall steel sculpture of a nude woman from San Francisco to Washington. Once there, organizers had planned to have her temporarily face the White House from a perch on the National Mall.

The installation was meant to start a conversation about violence against women, the sculpture’s artist, Marco Cochrane, said. His creation depicts a short-haired, nude woman standing in mountain pose — a yoga position chosen by the sculpture’s model.

The sculpture invites viewers to imagine a world where women are safe and live without fear, Mr. Cochrane previously said.

“For her to be able to just stand there and express nothing, just to be present in the moment, is a really powerful statement,” he said.

The sculpture was created for the Burning Man festival in 2015 but was being repurposed for a gathering in Washington — also called Catharsis on the Mall — that seeks to bring about social change. Organizers had planned to install it over six days in November and leave it there until March.