Ocean Piece - Washington, D.C. - Gifts from Other Countries on Waymarking.com

This unique gift from Lisbon to Washington, D.C. is a sculpted wave wall of Verde Viana marble (from Portugal) at the Navy Memorial/ Archives Metro entrance. Depite its efforts to blend in, this wall captures attention of passerby's.


Ocean Piece is sculpted in Verde Viana marble which is quarried in south Portugal. Composed of blocks approximately 23.5" by 23.5", the artwork suggests the theme of an ocean wave. Ocean Piece is integrated into the design of the existing wall at Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter Metro station, continuing the upper and lower curves of the passageway. In addition to the symbolism of the ocean wave linking the two countries' cultures, they are represented by two poems as well: "Prayer of Columbus" by Walt Whitman and "Occident" by Fernando Pessoa. Each poem is engraved at either end of the sculpture.

Ocidente (The West), 1934
Fernando Pessoa

With two hands - Deed and Fate
We have unveiled in the same gesture, one
Raises the flickering and divine torch
While the other draws the veil aside.

Whether the hour was ripe or it owned
The hand that tore the Western veil,
Science was the soul and Audacity the body
Of the hand that unveiled it.

Whether the hand rose the glittering torch
Out of Fortune, Will or Tempest,
God was the soul and Portugal the body
Of the hand that bore it.


Prayer of Columbus, 1874 (excerpt)
Walt Whitman

All my emprises have been fill'd with Thee,
My speculations, plans, begun and carried on in thoughts of Thee,
Sailing the deep, or journeying the land for Thee;
Intentions, purports, aspirations mine-leaving results to Thee.

O I am sure they really come from Thee!
The urge, the ardor, the unconquerable will,
The potent, felt, interior command, stronger than words,
A message from the Heavens, whispering to me even in sleep,
These sped me on.

By me, and these, the work so far accomplish'd (for what has been, has been);
By me Earth's elder, cloy'd and stifled lands, uncloy'd, unloos'd;
By me the hemispheres rounded and tied-the unknown to the known.

Jorge Martins was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1940. Ongoing political and social issues forced him to flee the country in 1961. He created an atelier in the U.S. in 1975, and a second in Lisbon in 1986. Mr. Martins has works in both public and private collections in Lisbon, Porto and Islands, Paris, Denmark and Luanda, and a range of works in public space, such as Ocean Piece, a high relief in the Metro Station Archives/Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. (1995).

Country or International City that Gave the Gift: Lisbon Country or International City that Received the Gift: United States of America Website Verifying this Item as a Gift from Another Country or International City: [Web Link]

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