Focus on this artwork and discuss the Reception.
The architectural critic Gavin Stamp (under the pseudonym "Piloti"), in Private Eye, awarded the statue the "Sir Hugh Casson Award for 2017's ugliest new building"  [sic] – "if sculpture is eligible". Orwell "surely deserves better", he wrote. "The great man is depicted holding a fag, dressed in a crumpled suit and standing like a music hall artist about to crack a joke. The plinth is pathetic. ... No hint here of Orwell's ambivalent relationship with the BBC." Jennings pointed out that "smoking was so much a part of [Orwell's] identity that it would have been unthinkable not to represent him with a roll-up between his fingers." Professor Richard Keeble, then Chair of The Orwell Society, responded in Private Eye's letters page that "the plinth on which the statue stands seems to fit in perfectly with the building". On BBC Radio 4's Front Row, the critic Sarah Gaventa also questioned the use of a plinth for this "man of the people". Gaventa was approving of the sculpture itself. "You can see he wants to get into the conversation and give you his very honest and forthright opinions. It's Orwell. Who else could it be? When you look at the canon of Martin Jennings's work… it's about brave people who speak out. I'm sure it will become a much-loved addition to the BBC". On BBC News Jennings explained his decision to elevate the statue: "Of course you make aesthetic decisions as well. He's up against a great big cliff of a stone wall and you need to frame it within that space. It couldn't have been at ground level".
In 2018 the statue won Jennings the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association's Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture. This was the first time the prize had been awarded to the same sculptor for two years in succession, Jennings having won in 2017 with Women of Steel, a sculptural group in Sheffield.  Ownership of the statue was transferred to The Orwell Society in 2021.
The Orwell Society Public Monuments and Sculpture Association Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture Gavin Stamp Martin Jennings music hall Women of Steel Orwell Private Eye roll-up Sheffield BBC fag Sir Hugh Casson Award Front Row