Answer Man: A Giant in Limbo

I recently gave in to a friend's desire to go on one of the DC Ducks, those World War II vehicles that tour Washington and drive into the Potomac. During the tour we were informed that within a month "The Awakening" -- the sculpture on National Park Service property at Hains Point -- will be gone, having been sold into private ownership. I would find it to be quite a loss.

Telin Ozier, Cambridge, Mass.

Don't worry! That giant isn't going anywhere anytime soon. But that's not to say he'll never leave. In fact, if you had a really big back yard and a really big bank account, you could be the proud owner of J. Seward Johnson Jr.'s massive sculpture.

"The Awakening" was installed at Hains Point in 1980 as part of the 11th annual Sculpture Conference, an event that scattered 500 works of art across the city temporarily. Johnson's was surely the biggest: five humongous pieces of cast aluminum that when arranged on the ground made it look as if a wild-eyed giant was bursting from the earth, his fingernails as big as dinner plates, his teeth as big as bagels.

Washington Post critic Paul Richard singled out the sculpture for praise, saying of the giant: "His esthetic may be retrograde -- he is horror-movie Gothic -- but his enormous figure is enormously impressive." Paul noted that Johnson's wallet -- he's an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune -- helped fund the conference. "Were Johnson still more generous, he would not take ['The Awakening'] with him, but would leave it here."

Leave it here Johnson did. He's even paid to repair damage when it was hit by a car, which has happened at least three times.

For a while it looked as if the giant would have to be carted away. In 1987, Congress authorized a National Peace Garden, and Hains Point seemed the most likely place for it. Plans for the peace garden died a few years ago, however, when the foundation behind it was unable to raise enough money for construction.

"The Awakening" is in a sort of odd limbo today.

A law passed in 1986 stipulates that sculpture on Park Service land must be "commemorative" in nature, or in place for just a short period of time.

"If the artwork were to come today, it would have had to have come and gone within a couple of weeks," said Sally Blumenthal , deputy associate regional director for the Park Service's National Capital Region.

Paula Stoeke , director of the Sculpture Foundation, which is affiliated with Johnson, said in a statement, "Yes, 'The Awakening' is for sale simply because it is still owned by the Sculpture Foundation and remains on long term loan to the Park Service."