Skip to main content
Statues of footballers don't always deliver
Sculptors offer their advice on what makes for a good depiction in the eyes of the art world and the public
The statue of Harry Kane unveiled at The Peter May Centre, London. Picture date: Monday November 18, 2024

ONE art critic compared the new Harry Kane bronze statue to a bulging-jawed comic strip character.

In Miami, observers say the Dwyane Wade sculpture looks more like actor Laurence Fishburne than the former basketball star. Of course, the infamous Cristiano Ronaldo bust in 2017 gave the chiseled football star a chubby face and goofy smile.

statue of Mohamed Salah in 2018 depicted the Liverpool star with a disproportionately large head. In 2011, a terracotta warrior statue of Andy Murray at a Shanghai tennis tournament drew chuckles, including from the star himself: “I thought I was better looking than that."

Do your research

Smile at your peril

Get the profile right

The eyes have it?

On a pedestal?

Vote on it

Liberation webinar, 30 November2024, 6pm (UK)
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Players compete during a football game between the NFL Acade
American Football / 9 October 2024
9 October 2024
kid hits a baseball during the MLB First Pitch Festival, at
Baseball / 22 June 2023
22 June 2023
Glasgow City and US national team player Krystyna Freda
Sport / 20 August 2020
20 August 2020
Similar stories
nottingham 1
Exhibition review / 20 February 2025
20 February 2025
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
islamesque
Books / 5 February 2025
5 February 2025
WILL PODMORE is enthralled by the convincing case that guilds of Islamic craftsmen were responsible for the European gothic style
hew locke 1
Exhibition review / 24 October 2024
24 October 2024
ROGER McKENZIE recommends an exhibition that explores the colonial plunder hidden in the collection, and the questions it raises
John Bull
Exhibition preview / 28 June 2024
28 June 2024
JOHN GREEN applauds the clarity with which an upcoming exhibition and book make plain Britain's role in the slave trade