The power of Patricia Cronin's 'Memorial to a Marriage'
Posted 01 Feb 2021, by Laura Bauld
In Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, on the upper balcony, there is asculpture that takes most viewers by surprise.
Cast in bronze, the sculpture shows a couple lying together on a soft bed, heads resting
on a pillow with hair splayed around them. One figure lies flat on their back, knee bent
upwards – the other dozing figure, tuned on their right side, reaches their left arm
around their partner, their head cradled into their partner's shoulder. The sleeping pairare encompassed in a bedsheet, draped and twisted around their legs, revealing theirfeet and toes touching.

© Patricia Cronin Studio, LLC. Photo credit: Glasgow Museums
Memorial of a Marriage, (detail), 2004, bronze sculpture by Patricia Cronin (b.1963)

What is it that makes most viewers double take when they encounter this sculpture?
The figures lying intimately together are both women. The reason that viewers stop in
their tracks is, more often than not, because their unconscious, heteronormative bias
has been momentarily disrupted. In a sculpture of such inherent classical form, theyexpect to see a man and woman lying together. Instead, they are confronted withsomething quite different from their expectations.
I have seen this reaction again and again while taking visitors around the halls of
Kelvingrove or even just people-watching. For this sculpture was made to provoke areaction. It was created to challenge and confront heteronormativity, bias, and LGBTQ+
discrimination. Every double take proves the power of this sculpture.

© Patricia Cronin Studio, LLC. Photo credit: Glasgow Museums
Memorial of a Marriage, (detail), 2004, bronze sculpture by Patricia Cronin (b.1963)

Entitled ​Memorial to a Marriage​, this sculpture was cast by American artist Patricia
Cronin in 2004, and depicts herself and her partner, fellow artist Deborah Kass, lying in
bed, embraced in each other's arms. In 2004, when this bronze version was made,same-sex marriage was illegal in the United States of America. At this time, the only
way in which Cronin's and Kass's relationship could be legally recognised was throughdocuments such as wills or health care provisions that would only be enacted if either ofthem died.

As it was only in death that their relationship could be 'recognised' in law, Cronin
decided to create ​Memorial to a Marriage​ for her personal burial plot in Woodlawn
Cemetery in the Bronx, New York – a funerary 'memorial' to her relationship with Kass.
The original sculpture was carved in marble and installed in the cemetery in 2002.
In 2009 Glasgow Museums held the exhibition 'sh[OUT]' at the Gallery of Modern Art –a radical and thought-provoking exhibition that explored the power of contemporary artand human rights with a focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex artand culture.
In the exhibition interpretation, Cronin remarked upon their sculpture and its symbolic
meaning: 'The statue addresses issues of lesbian invisibility, gay marriage, love andloss, power and status. In this sculpture I chose a nationalist form – nineteenth-century
American Neoclassical sculpture – to address what I consider a federal failure. In death
I make official my "marriage" which is still not legal while we are alive.'
On 24th July 2011, same-sex marriage was legalised in the state of New York, andCronin and Kass married on this same day. A bronze version replaced the marble
sculpture in September of that year to protect the original marble from air pollution.
Today, the sculpture is the first and only Marriage Equality Monument in the world, foreveryone to see, free of charge in Woodlawn Cemetery.

© Patricia Cronin Studio, LLC. Photo credit: Glasgow Museums
Memorial of a Marriage, (detail), 2004, bronze sculpture by Patricia Cronin (b.1963)

The version owned by Glasgow Museums was cast by Cronin from the original marblesculpture but at a smaller two-third scale. After featuring in the 2009 exhibition'sh[OUT]', the sculpture now has a permanent home in Kelvingrove Art Gallery andMuseum where it has continued to be at the centre of Glasgow Museums' LGBTQ+
activism.
Cronin has continued to be active with the display and interpretation of ​Memorial to aMarriage​, giving continued support to Glasgow Museums' ongoing work to reveal
LGBTQ+ histories within our collection.

Most recently, Cronin granted permission for ​Memorial to a Marriage​ to feature as partof Glasgow Museums' new online school topic 'LGBTQ+ Histories and Experiences'.
Featured on the Glasgow Museums Collections Navigator website, the topic brings
together objects from Glasgow Museums' collections that reveal LGBTQ+ histories. The
Scottish Government has made a commitment to include LGBTQ+ inclusive educationin the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence by 2021, so this topic has been developed tosupport this learning in the classroom. ​Memorial to a Marriage​ is an important andpoignant work to feature in the topic, allowing teachers and pupils to discuss LGBTQ+
visibility, activism, and human rights.

© the artist. Photo credit: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Museums
Memorial to a Marriage, 2004, bronze sculpture by Patricia Cronin (b.1963)

The sculpture is often the last stop I take visitors to on our LGBTQ+ History tours atKelvingrove. I have seen an endless spectrum of reactions to this sculpture from ourtour attendees – tears, quiet resignation, anger at the injustice it represents, excitement,
joy – it constantly continues to inspire and provoke.

© Patricia Cronin Studio, LLC. Photo credit: Glasgow Museums
Memorial to a Marriage 2004​, Patricia Cronin (b.1963), ​Glasgow Museums

I have seen the faces of LGBTQ+ young people light up when suddenly they realise
there is something in the museum that represents them. And there are many visitors
passing by, who, after their initial double take, choose to stop, engage and reflect overthe sleeping bronze forms of Cronin and Kass. Those visitors become witnesses – notjust to a powerful memorial to marriage equality, but to a monument of the beauty ofsame-sex love and the importance of making this visible.
'LGBT Histories and Experiences' – Glasgow Museums' online LGBT history school
resource can be accessed on the Glasgow Museums Collections Navigator website.
Laura Bauld, Burrell Project Curator

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