Reception
The memorial has been well received from the outset. When shown sketches the design, one of the Adelaide contingent described it as "spirited" – a word that was echoed by King Edward VII upon being shown a photograph of the model that was produced. When the completed statue arrived in Adelaide in 1904, the committee was reportedly delighted, and many in Australia viewed it as the best statue in the country.
In more recent times, Ken Inglis has described the work as the "apotheosis" of the bushman soldier, representing the bushman and the horse at war (the "Australian centaur"), and noted that it was possible to view the memorial as commemorating "dead horses as well as dead men". Simon Cameron, in his work "Silent Witness: Adelaide's statues and monuments", described the memorial as the most eye-catching statue in Adelaide, a view that was echoed by Chris Brice in 1999. More generally, the memorial is regarded as one of "Adelaide's most significant statues". The statue received national heritage listing in 1990, having been described both as a "significant landmark" and an "important piece of public sculpture of its period."
Read more about this topic: South African War Memorial (South Australia)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)