As the latest "Superman" film continues dominating the box office, Cleveland's own Superman statue is set for public unveiling Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Huntington Convention Center.
It's an homage to the character created by Clevelanders Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938. The new piece is the work of renowned sculptor David Deming, creator of bronze monuments to Jane Scott, Frank Robinson and many others. For this assignment, Deming changed course.
“He was the Man of Steel - come on!” Deming said while working at his studio in the Screw Factory complex in Lakewood. “I didn't want him to be like all the other Superman sculptures around the world that are all painted flesh color. I wanted this to be unique, and I don't think there's a flying one anywhere.”
The project began two decades ago, while Deming was head of the Cleveland Institute of Art. The Lakewood native was immediately on board with the plan to commemorate the Man of Steel. Progress stalled when its permanent location — near the unbuilt Downtown land bridge — was no longer viable. Eventually, as $2.2 million was being raised, Deming created several iterations in different sizes. Some were too muscular, others not muscular enough.
“I have been asked numerous times who I modeled it after,” he said. “I told DC [Comics], when we presented this, I just paid attention to the conversations that Siegel and Shuster had with each other [about] what Superman should look like. There were a host of people that they were thinking about. And then think about it: 80-some years, all those other artists that have done Superman … there's a quality about it, but they all look different.”
This year Deming took his final, half-scale fiberglass model to a Texas foundry, where it was 3D scanned and cast in, appropriately, steel.
"They had sandblasted it [to] look like it had been painted with flat gray paint," he said. "I said, 'I don't want it shiny like a bumper, but I want it to glow a little bit.'"
The towering piece is mounted on an angular base of blue with white, red and yellow accents that allude to Superman’s primary colors. Deming said he wanted an abstract way to mount the flying figure.
“You can't just put a 2,000-pound stainless thing up in the air,” he said. “It's got to be attached to something. So, I was trying to come up with something that was a little more interesting than just the pillar with him on the top. I was thinking of … a hint of a tall building that he's flying by. But also, the crystals at his fortress of solitude.”
Nearby, Clark Kent’s favorite dressing room is depicted as a replica phone booth. Figures of Siegel, Shuster and the model for Lois Lane — Jerry’s wife, Joanne — round out the display.
