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Archive 1

Disambiguation

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

@Yann: I've never seen statues disambiguated as "sculpture, [location]". I've seen disambiguation by artist last name and location, either using a comma or parentheses. Are you sure "sculpture, San Francisco" complies with conventions? ---Another Believer (Talk) 18:06, 24 June 2019 (UTC)

@Randy Kryn and Ham II: Curious for your thoughts as well. ---Another Believer (Talk) 18:09, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
This seems to be fine with just the 'sculpture' descriptor, as Mohandas K. Gandhi (sculpture) still redirects here. If any other sculpture with Gandhi's full name receives a page in Wikipedia then a change is warranted (Mohandas K. Gandhi (San Francisco sculpture) or simply Mohandas K. Gandhi (San Francisco), created the redirects, and would work). Side note, Gandhi never wanted to be called 'Mahatma' and discouraged people from doing so, understanding that anyone could have done what he had by learning and acting on the science of nonviolence. Dr. King and James Bevel understood the same thing (the "Big Three" of 20th century nonviolence). Randy Kryn (talk) 20:54, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
Randy Kryn, I agree, I think this should either be moved back to Mohandas K. Gandhi (sculpture) if there are no other sculptures known specifically by this name. Or, I'd be ok with making the page title more generic, such as Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, San Francisco, given the title of the parent article: Mahatma Gandhi. I guess just depends on whether we'd prefer to use the artwork's official title, or common name. ---Another Believer (Talk) 20:58, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
Mohandas K. Gandhi (San Francisco) might be best if 'statue' confuses (although the simple name still redirects here). I personally haven't liked the 'Statue of' descriptor in titles, brevity has its purpose. Randy Kryn (talk) 21:02, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
Added it to the template. If the actual name of the statue is 'Mohandas K. Gandhi' then this should stay and not use the 'Mahatma' name, maybe the sculptor knew of Gandhi's avoidance of that title. Randy Kryn (talk) 21:13, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
Randy Kryn, Here's the plaque. ---Another Believer (Talk) 21:14, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
Thanks. Nice plaque, and probably page worthy. The present Mohandas K. Gandhi name seems to be the correct one from the looks of it. Randy Kryn (talk) 21:17, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
I'm ok with Mohandas K. Gandhi (San Francisco) or Mohandas K. Gandhi (sculpture). Any other editors care to weigh in? ---Another Believer (Talk) 21:22, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
Comment There are thousands of sculptures of Mahatma Gandhi throughout the world, so Mohandas K. Gandhi (sculpture) is not an appropriate name. I am OK with Mohandas K. Gandhi (San Francisco) (while I think mentioning "sculpture" or "statue" in the title would be better), i.e. Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, San Francisco is better. Regards, Yann (talk) 07:09, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
Comment: Like Yann, I prefer the style "Statue of [subject], [location]", although we usually put US place names in brackets rather than after a comma when disambiguating, so Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (San Francisco). I've picked "Mahatma" over "Mohandas" assuming that the article title for Mahatma Gandhi reflects the WP:COMMONNAME. If reliable sources discussing the statue mainly use "Mohandas K. Gandhi", I would also be open to Statue of Mohandas K. Gandhi (San Francisco). It should be noted that both Mohandas and Mahatma appear on the plaque, although the former is in all caps!
That said, the "Statue of..." title convention seems to be more often used for statues in the UK (the area where I usually contribute) than for ones in the US. So we have Statue of William Shakespeare, Leicester Square for a statue in London, but William Shakespeare (Ward) for one in Central Park, New York. I suppose the US statues are treated more as artworks, with italicised titles followed by disambiguation, and less as landmarks. I think the "Statue of..." style has greater clarity and would change the title for the Central Park statue either to Statue of William Shakespeare (New York City) or to Statue of William Shakespeare (Central Park), depending on whether there are multiple statues of Shakespeare in New York.
Turning to other statues of Gandhi, there's Mohandas Gandhi (Patel) for a statue in New York and Mahatma Gandhi (sculpture) for one in Houston, Texas. These aren't the clearest of titles, and I'd suggest changing them to Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (New York City) and Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (Houston), with Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (San Francisco) to match. There are also Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (Washington, D.C.) and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (Milwaukee), which are clear enough in my opinion. Ditto for the statues outside the US: Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi Maidan (in Patna, India), Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Johannesburg and Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Parliament Square (in London, which has another statue of Gandhi in Tavistock Square).
In a nutshell, I think that including "statue" (or "sculpture" or "memorial") increases comprehensibility, the "Statue of..." style is preferable to the "official title" style for this reason – statues being a case apart from other works of art – and I'd like to see greater standardisation across different countries. Sorry for the mammoth post! Ham II (talk) 14:19, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
Ham II, I do wish there were more consistency and appreciate your thorough reply. Perhaps this discussion should be raised at WikiProjects Sculpture and/or Visual arts... again... ---Another Believer (Talk) 14:23, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

Side note: I've created Category:Statues of Mahatma Gandhi. ---Another Believer (Talk) 17:36, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

Thanks! There are no fewer than 8, with a variety of naming styles, but most (6/8) use "Mahatma", like our article. We should agree a fairly consistent style. Johnbod (talk) 17:39, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
Disagree. The "style" should be the real name of the statue (often translated into English for English Wikipedia) or an overwhelmingly used common name. Randy Kryn (talk) 21:30, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
Have you any evidence for Mohandas K. Gandhi being the statue’s “real name” or even its “overwhelmingly used common name”? I can’t see that formulation in any of the sources cited in the article. All I can find is the plaque with its one instance of “MOHANDAS K. GANDHI” and two of “Mahatma Gandhi”. Ham II (talk) 06:43, 27 June 2019 (UTC)
Just the prominence of the name on the plaque, which would usually indicate the intended name of the statue (the two mentions of 'Mahatma' are quotes). Possibly the name is also in the sources, but on clicking a couple I had computer glitches kick in (I try not to click on many outside links for that reason), so the name may be in there somewhere. Randy Kryn (talk) 11:10, 27 June 2019 (UTC)
My suggestion of Gandhi statue (San Francisco) was partly intended to avoid such disputes. "Gandhi statue" will probably be clearer to more readers than either Mohandas K. Gandhi (San Francisco) or even ''Mahatma Gandhi'' (San Francisco), both as to what and who. I agree with Ham that articles about statues or public sculptures should normally have this in the title. Johnbod (talk) 12:22, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

I'm struggling to find consensus here... Any final thoughts or suggestions for moving forward? ---Another Believer (Talk) 00:31, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Since this isn't an RM and no consensus has formed I'd say, without any guideline or policy to back it up, that the page creator should choose. Best I can come up with unless you want to do a full RM. Randy Kryn (talk) 00:44, 2 July 2019 (UTC)
Randy Kryn, I don't want my way because I started the page, but I do find this interesting we're having difficulty coming up with something. If we're going with the title of the artwork, I'm leaning towards Mohandas K. Gandhi (sculpture), to disambiguate from Mohandas K. Gandhi. But if we're going with common name, I'm not opposed to Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (San Francisco). Usually we disambiguate by artist last name, but in this case there are two artists, which complicates things slightly. ---Another Believer (Talk) 00:57, 2 July 2019 (UTC)
Yes, but as you mention, there is no consensus and we all have mentioned our choices. What is to be done in these cases? I dunno. Randy Kryn (talk) 01:01, 2 July 2019 (UTC)
Randy Kryn, We should probably do a closer review of sourcing to see how the subject is described most often. Then, if we can at least narrow down to a couple options, we can "vote" again or do a formal move request for wider input. ---Another Believer (Talk) 01:06, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

As I said above, Mohandas K. Gandhi doesn't appear in any of the sources cited in the article:

  • Rodell has "Mahatma Gandhi", "the Mahatma Gandhi statue", "the Gandhi statue" and "the Ghandi statue"
  • Coté 2010 has "the bronze statue of Mohandas Gandhi"
  • Ho et al. 2013 has "a Gandhi statue", "Mohandas Gandhi" and "the Gandhi statue"
  • Huet 2013 has "Gandhi statue" and "the statue of Mohandas Gandhi".
  • About the Artist – Gandhi Statue Waikiki, which isn't primarily about the San Francisco statue, has variants on "Gandhi statue"

If there are other useful sources, they should be added to the article. At the moment, the argument about Mohandas K. Gandhi being the correct title rests on the plaque, and I'm still not convinced that the prominence there of MOHANDAS K. GANDHI is unambiguous proof of a "correct" title – I read it as simply identifying the person portrayed by the statue. (On a side note, I think it would be a mistake to read much significance into the mix of "Mahatma" and "Mohandas" on the plaque.) Unless there is a strong case for a correct title, we should standardise to Mahatma Gandhi per the title of Gandhi's main article.

My strong preference is for Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (San Francisco); the essential information the article's title should convey is that this is the statue of Gandhi in San Francisco. We should drop the idea that all artworks have to have italicised titles; outdoor statues are a special case as they are landmarks as well. Ham II (talk) 18:50, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Ham II, I am fine with Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (San Francisco). @Johnbod and Randy Kryn: Are you fine with me moving the page? ---Another Believer (Talk) 18:53, 2 July 2019 (UTC)
Your choice. I still keep my position that statues which have real names should be titled by their real names. Can you maybe keep 'Mohandas' in the title, keeping some semblance of the real name? Thanks. Randy Kryn (talk) 19:12, 2 July 2019 (UTC)
Ok with Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (San Francisco). Johnbod (talk) 21:08, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Note: I'm going to go ahead and archive this discussion in an attempt to centralize discussion here: Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Visual_arts#Naming_conventions_for_public_statues. Please start a new discussion for one specific to this statue. ---Another Believer (Talk) 01:18, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Requested move 2 July 2019

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. There is consensus that the proposed name is more consistent with the titles of other articles on Gandhi statues than the current name. (non-admin closure)​ — Newslinger talk 00:13, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

Mohandas K. Gandhi (sculpture, San Francisco) → Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (San Francisco) – For consistency with other "Statue of XXX" articles, disambiguated by location. See related discussion above and at Talk:Mahatma Gandhi (sculpture). --Another Believer (Talk) 21:19, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

@Necrothesp: Where have we had the debate before? I'm curious to know as I'd like to apply the standard further if these move requests are successful. Ham II (talk) 14:56, 4 July 2019 (UTC)
Ah, now there I'm stumped. I just know we have. And not that long ago. -- Necrothesp (talk) 14:59, 4 July 2019 (UTC)
@Necrothesp: Sorry to put you on the spot there! Hope you find it. Ham II (talk) 15:05, 4 July 2019 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.
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