AA-2026-579B4D
On the image
Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California had by 1958 perfected a formula no one had quite dared to try before: a cemetery that marketed itself as a destination. Visitors came on Sunday afternoons with the children, consulted printed guides, and stood before monumental sculpture the way they might stand before a Rembrandt, on the reasonable theory that proximity to great art was improving even if you couldn't explain why. The large allegorical group here — "The Mystery of Life," a crowd of draped and semi-draped figures ascending toward something aspirational — was exactly the kind of work that made that theory easy to maintain.
The two women facing the pedestal have the posture of people doing a thing correctly. One holds what appears to be a brochure, which Forest Lawn supplied with the thoroughness of a theme park, because the whole enterprise was run on the conviction that death, properly landscaped and annotated, lost most of its sting. The children at the chain barrier have not yet absorbed the interpretive framework and are simply looking at the statues.
The inscription on the base promising a meditation on life's mysteries sits in a cemetery, which is either the most appropriate setting imaginable or a very long way around the point.
Visually related — by likeness
The Mystery of Life Sculpture, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, 1958. 1958. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-579B4D. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/the-mystery-of-life-sculpture-forest-lawn-memorial-park-glendale-1958.
@misc{aaAA2026579B4D,
title = {The Mystery of Life Sculpture, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, 1958},
year = {1958},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-579B4D},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/the-mystery-of-life-sculpture-forest-lawn-memorial-park-glendale-1958}
}TY - ART TI - The Mystery of Life Sculpture, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, 1958 PY - 1958 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-579B4D UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/the-mystery-of-life-sculpture-forest-lawn-memorial-park-glendale-1958 ER -
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