Unconditional Surrender is a series of sculptures by Seward Johnson resembling a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, V–J day in Times Square, but said by Johnson to be based on a similar, less well known, photograph by Victor Jorgensen.[1]
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Seward Johnson first built a life-size bronze precursor to the huge statues of Unconditional Surrender, reportedly using computer technology. A 25-foot-tall styrofoam version of the work was part of a temporary exhibition in Sarasota, Florida in 2005, at its bayfront.[2]
He proceeded with the manufacture of aluminum versions of the 25-foot-tall statue, marketing them through a foundation he had created. He offered copies ranging from $542,500 for styrofoam, $980,000 for aluminum, and $1,140,000 for bronze.[2]
Johnson established "The Sculpture Foundation" to disseminate his work.
Interest in a revisit to Sarasota in 2009 was cultivated by a director of a bayfront biannual show and an aluminum copy was placed at the bayfront, again temporarily. An "88-year-old donor, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II" offered to pay half a million dollars for it against an initial asking price of $680,000.[3] While some members of the community supported the statue, others felt the statue was not good enough to be displayed on the bay front. The Chairwoman of the Public Art Committee at the time said that "it doesn't even qualify as kitsch...It is like a giant cartoon image drafted by a computer emulating a famous photograph. It's not the creation of an artist. It's an artist copying a famous image."[4]
Joel May, a Sarasota architect and a member of the city's public art committee, raised an issue of possible copyright infringement, because of the similarity of the sculpture to Alfred Eisenstaedt's photograph V–J day in Times Square, published in Life in 1945 and still protected by copyright. Johnson said he was aware of this issue, and had used another photograph of the kissing couple taken by Victor Jorgensen, which is in the public domain.[1]
The attorney for the municipal government said that the attorneys for Johnson and the donor had fulfilled the requirements set by the city commission, making way for exhibition of the statue for at least ten years.[5]
The second place to exhibit Unconditional Surrender was the G Street Mole Park of Port of San Diego (also known as Tuna Harbor Park), where the authority installed one temporarily in 2007.[6][7]
Robert L. Pincus, art critic of The San Diego Union Tribune, said that according to "theme-park logic" the statue suited the site, in front of the Midway Aircraft Museum, and that it pleased couples who mimicked the pose, but that it was kitsch and "The figures look like something from a cheap souvenir factory, blown up beyond any reason."[6]
The statue is reportedly on loan through August 2010[8], but is still in place as of April 2011.
A third Unconditional Surrender, on loan from Johnson's "Sculpture Foundation", was installed in Hamilton, New Jersey.[9] Writing up this event, a staff writer for The Trentonian described Unconditional Surrender as a "masterpiece".[9]
In August, 2011, a life-size version of the statue was unveiled in Waikiki and later taken to Battleship Missouri in Pearl Harbor where it will stay to commemorate the 66th anniversary of WWII’s end.[10]