A new sculpture just dropped in Times Square, and MAGA is acting like it’s the fall of Rome. The piece in question, titled Grounded in the Stars, is a 12-foot bronze statue of a young Black woman by figurative artist Thomas J. Price. It isn’t abstract or provocative in any traditional sense—just a woman, standing still, present. Standing. Looking like someone who just got off a night shift and still has groceries to pick up.

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A 12-foot bronze sculpture by Thomas J. Price is displayed in Times Square on May 8, 2025. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images)

That didn’t stop the usual suspects from declaring it proof of societal collapse. In the past week, critics have whined that the sculpture “celebrates obesity,” called it a “woke disgrace,” and framed it as the latest casualty in the war on Western civilization. That’s a lot of heat for a statue that’ll only be there through June.

But look a little closer, and the outrage says more about the critics than the art.

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Representation Has Never Looked Like Wall Street

This sculpture, titled Reaching Out, does something radical in its simplicity. It shows a Black woman, dressed like someone you’d actually see on the subway. She isn’t idealized, she isn’t gilded, she isn’t performing. She just exists—and for many, that alone is offensive.

The backlash proves how little people know about art history. Full-bodied women have appeared in sculpture and painting for millennia. Titian, Rubens, and dozens of pre-modern artists captured similar forms long before body positivity had a hashtag. Even Neolithic fertility statues leaned full-figured. The idea that this statue is a cultural anomaly shows just how fragile modern conservatives are when faced with a body that doesn’t flatter them.

Historical depictions of fuller-bodied women in art including works by Titian and Rubens, alongside Neolithic fertility statues, challenging modern beauty standards.
Apparently Western civilization was doomed long before Times Square got a Black woman statue—Titian and the Neolithic queens were already out here celebrating curves.

Then there’s the irony that Michelangelo’s David trended the same week, with conservatives holding him up as the gold standard. No one seemed to mind that Michelangelo, tortured by his own sexuality, painted women who look suspiciously like men. Art is complicated. Artists are messy. But now, instead of engaging with complexity, critics just scream “woke” and log off.

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The Art World Lost Its Nerve, But That’s Not Her Fault

It’s worth noting how the artist framed the statue’s intent—empathy, identity, and representation. These are valid and important ideas, but they now dominate public art to the point where broader social and economic themes often get pushed aside.

That wasn’t always the case. When Diego Rivera painted his famous mural at Rockefeller Center in the 1930s, he envisioned a world divided between capitalism and socialism, with workers, black and white, standing shoulder to shoulder beside Lenin and Marx. The Rockefellers eventually painted over it. That kind of bold, politically charged vision rarely makes it into public art commissions today.

The recreated version of the painting, known as "Man, Controller of the Universe"
Man at the Crossroads (1933) was a fresco by Mexican painter Diego Rivera.

And maybe that’s what unsettles critics the most. This statue isn’t just a statement about race or body type, it’s about presence. She doesn’t look like someone posing for a fashion ad or running for office. She looks like someone waiting for the bus after a long shift. That kind of visibility, ordinary, unglamorous, working-class, is rarely given a pedestal. And in a place like Times Square, it speaks volumes.

What the Black Woman Statue Teaches Us About Power and Presence

The MAGA meltdown over this statue has nothing to do with art and everything to do with entitlement. Public space has always reflected who a society thinks matters. For centuries, it reflected rich, white men. Now, for a few weeks, it reflects someone else, and the internet can’t handle it.

Let’s be honest. No one is taking down George M. Cohan or Father Duffy. They’re still right there in Times Square. This new statue doesn’t erase anyone. It just joins the conversation. That might feel like a loss to people used to holding the mic, but it’s not. It’s a shift. And frankly, it’s about time.

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