The Forgotten Peace Monument of the Sonoma Coast
The Forgotten Peace Monument of the Sonoma Coast
After almost 60 years, Benny Bufano's Madonna of Peace still stands watch. A walk and talk about this monument is scheduled for this Sunday.
If you're feeling overwhelmed during these troubled times, you might want to take a trip up the Sonoma Coast this weekend to visit an unusual peace monument, known as the Madonna of Peace/Expanding Universe.
The creation of Italian-American artist Benny Bufano, it sits on the bluffs at Timber Cove and is visible for miles around.
Longtime peace activist and Fort Ross guide Hank Birnbaum is holding a walk and talk about the monument this weekend on Sunday, Oct. 15 at 4 pm. Birnbaum organized the event in honor of Bufano's birthday on that same day, but also to remind people that it's important, particularly in times of war, to make a stand for peace.
"The war in Ukraine is just heartbreaking," Birnbaum said. "And now as we witness this horror in the Middle East, to me, it's even more important for us all to ask ourselves, what can we do? As Benny did. So I'd like to raise a toast to him and in honor of his work, and for all of us to ask, what can we do in whatever realm—in small and sometimes not so small ways? It's important that we take responsibility."
The monument, which is 93 feet tall, is made of concrete, mosaic tile, redwood, and lead. It was begun during the Cuban Missile Crisis and finally completed during the height of the Vietnam War.
Born in 1890, Bufano was one of 15 children. He came to America as a child with his parents in 1901. He studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1913–1915 and later apprenticed himself to several well-known sculptors.
Though he was only five-feet tall, he seems to have been a larger-than-life character—and one who made himself larger in the retelling. As the artist admitted in a film about his life, "I just told each person not only what I thought he wanted to hear, but I related it in the way I thought appropriate for him."
He was staunchly anti-war all of his life. When Bufano accidentally cut off his index finger, shortly after America entered WWI, he sent it to President Wilson as an anti-war gesture, calling it his “trigger finger.” (According to Wikipedia, he allowed the legend to grow that he’d cut off his finger on purpose for this protest.)
Bufano, who eventually settled in San Francisco, specialized in minimalistic, totem-like works of people and animals. Drawing from his Catholic upbringing, he often did works of art featuring Madonna and child images.
“Many of his different works are in the shape of a missile,” Birnbaum said. “He wanted to somehow go beyond the sort of stereotypical olive branches and other symbols of peace and somehow more actively engage in this conversation, questioning and actively expanding the role of the artist as a peace activist.”
Madonna of Peace/Expanding Universe is eight stories high and weighs approximately 20 tons. It was the largest work Bufano ever created, and he almost didn’t finish it.
According to Birnbaum the top of the obelisk lay on its side by the road for years, until a group of locals and Bufano’s friends hired a crane to set it in place. When Bufano came to see the finished monument, he said they’d put the top piece on backwards—the Madonna was meant to face the land, not the sea. Undaunted, he painted a second face on the back of the statue.
Bufano died in 1970.
After all these years, the statue is beginning to show some wear and tear. Some of the tiles on the Madonna’s face have come off and need to be repaired. Birnbaum hopes this gathering might also be the beginning of an effort to refurbish the sculpture. But most of all, he hopes the event will provide both solace and inspiration to work for peace in this difficult, war-torn time.
Meet in the lobby of the Timber Cove Resort rain or shine at 4 pm on Sunday, October 15. There will be a champagne toast at the inn after the walk.
