Robert Graham: 1938-2008.

Robert Graham, the man who sculpted one of the most controversial pieces of art in Detroit history, died on Saturday, 27th December, at the age of seventy.

Graham first gained widespread recognition before the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles when he was commissioned to create sculptures outside the Coliseum’s gates. He created the life-size bronze sculpture of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a wheelchair at the Roosevelt Memorial in Washington.

He also sculpted the bronze panels at the memorial depicting the fifty-four social programs of Roosevelt's New Deal.

But he is perhaps best-known for his memorial to legendary boxer Joe Louis in the city of Detroit. His massive 24-foot bronze, "The Fist" - the right arm of a boxer suspended from a pyramid structure - was unveiled in October 1987 amid much controversy.

TOO VIOLENT?

Many considered the memorial, which was commissioned with a $350,000 grant from Sports Illustrated magazine, to be too violent an icon for the city's favourite son.

When one art instructor commented on the curious decision to portray Louis through one separated limb, suggesting that it would be more logical to show the athlete's whole body, Graham defended his choice in an interview with The Detroit News:

"A SYMBOL".

"Making a statue of a fighter would have been a limited image of Joe Louis," he said. "People bring their own experiences to the sculpture. I wanted to leave the image open, allowing it to become a symbol rather than make it specific."

Robert Graham's other works include a bronze monument to jazz great Charlie Parker in Kansas City, Mo., simply titled "Bird".

Graham was married to actress Angelica Huston.