A Sculpture's True Colors

Conserving a bronze sculpture and painting it don’t usually go together, but a community’s traditions and open debate resulted in just that. Kapa’au is a town in North Kohala, the birthplace of King Kamehameha I, who unified the Hawaiian Islands. June 11 is celebrated statewide as Kamehameha Day, and the festivities include a parade and presenting leis to the sculpture, which is painted in lifelike colors. This year it was also the official rededication of the newly conserved and painted sculpture.

A Long Journey
King Kamehameha I was commissioned in 1878 to commemorate Captain Cook’s first visit to the Hawaiian Islands. Thomas Ridgeway Gould, a Boston sculptor, had the sculpture cast in a Paris foundry in 1879. It was shipped to Bremen, Germany, and put aboard a ship bound for Honolulu, which sank near the Falkland Islands. With the insurance money, a second sculpture was cast, which now stands in front of the Judiciary Building near the Ali’iölani Palace in Honolulu. It is maintained as per the artist’s intent, with black-patinated bronze skin and a gilded cloak and a barbed spear.

The first casting was retrieved from the ocean by a fisherman, repaired, painted brown, refitted with a plain spear and sited in Ainakea, North Kohala, in 1883. It was moved to Kapa’au in 1912, on the lawn of the former courthouse and current senior citizen center.

Conservator Glenn Wharton, Glenn Wharton and Associates, Inc., assessed the sculpture in 1996 and concluded that it had originally been painted brown to hide corrosion from its immersion in the ocean. No one knows why the subsequent paintings occurred, but they became a community tradition. Wharton analyzed the 26 layers of paint, noting that the colors had changed over the years. At some point, glass eyes had also been inserted.

A Community Project
“This project has changed the way I do my work,” says Wharton. He posed the question of gilding versus painting to the community, which held various public meetings and finally a vote to decide. Ballots were gathered at local drop boxes, and the vote, tallied on December 8, 2000, was 71 percent in favor of painting. The voters also opted to keep the glass eyeballs.

Old paint layers were stripped by pressured water, revealing previously hidden details, such as the feathers on the costume. Locally available paint was chosen and applied. Wharton worked with local citizens, including Kealoha Sugiyama who had been painting the sculpture since the late 1980s, and trained them to do the necessary maintenance.

“The town is really fully invested in this sculpture,” says Susan Nichols, director of Save Outdoor Sculpture!, who attended the rededication. The community celebrated the rededication in various ways: Keola John Lake wrote a hula ki'i script about the monument for the event, which was performed by local kumu hula Raylene Lancaster and her halau. Traditional puppetry, including a hand puppet of Wharton, and the presentation of leis were also featured. Descendants of King Kamehameha marched in the parade in red and orange velvet capes.

The project was administered by the Hawai'i Alliance for Arts Education, in participation with Keahi Allen of the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission. Funders include the Hawai'i Community Foundation, the Atherton Foundation, the Getty Trust and Save Outdoor Sculpture!, which made a Conservation Treatment Award thanks to Target Stores and National Endowment for the Arts.

Photos courtesy Susan Nichols

To see previous Preservation Projects of the Month, click here.

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