Statue Dedicated to Major Taylor Planned for Worcester

The Statue

Maryland sculptor Antonio Tobias Mendez has been chosen to create the Major Taylor statue at the Worcester Public Library. His design is a two-sided monument incorporating both sculpture and text, inviting viewers to learn more about the man and his legacy.

Pictures of the statue design, as conceived in 1999-2000, are below. For a slide show of the making of the statue in 2007-2008, click here.

Slide 1	Slide2	Slide 3
Slide 4	Slide 5	Slide 6
Slide 7	Slide 8

Toby Mendez of Knoxville, Md., holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago. His works include bronze panels at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C.; "A Tribute to the Oyster Tonger" at Annmarie Gardens in Calvert County, Md.; the state of Maryland's Thurgood Marshall Memorial (1996) in Annapolis; monuments to Nolan Ryan and Tom Vandergriff (1997) at the Texas Rangers Baseball Club in Arlington, Texas; and "The Warwick Quahogger, A Day's Catch" (1998) at the Warwick Public Library in Rhode Island.

Mendez' design features a two-sided sculpture wall, 10 feet high and 12 feet, 4 inches wide, serving as a wind break for the library entrance and anchoring an outdoor plaza suited for reflection and contemplation. One side of the wall will be inscribed with text explaining Major Taylor's life story, under a 4-foot-by-8-foot bronze bas relief sculpture of track bike racers in action. The other side will feature a larger-than-life, three-dimensional figure of Major Taylor, with his bicycle in high relief, in front of a velodrome portrayed in bas relief, as shown above. The contrast between the three-dimensional human figure and the relief elements is intended to prompt the viewer "to focus on the athlete as a man," the artist says, as well as to protect the intricate bicycle element from damage. The circle in stone on the ground will be paved in a design inspired by a bicycle wheel.

Click here to read quotes from
people who voted on the statue design.