President Donald Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center Board has decided to remove a popular and whimsical piece of outdoor artwork without notice and explanation, according to a new report.
The towering sculpture "Blue," by artist Joel Shapiro, was removed from the Kennedy Center's grounds this week, the latest apparent move to remake the arts venue under Trump's stewardship, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The "cobalt-colored, stick-figure sculpture" was installed in September 2019 at the Reach expansion overlooking the Potomac River, its mid-kick pose designed to shift depending on the viewer's position. Shapiro described the piece as being "about action and risk and performance and energy" — "a celebration of possibility." He died in June 2025.
The Kennedy Center "gave no advance notice of the removal and offered no explanation," when pressed by the Post, nor did it immediately respond to requests for comment. A former curator told Artlyst that internal documents showed the work had been "earmarked for elimination" early in Trump's takeover, criticizing the secrecy around removing art "held in trust for the American people."
The sculpture's removal marks the latest controversy at the venue since Trump took it over in February 2025. His reshaped board of trustees voted to make him chairman and rename the center after him; a judge initially blocked efforts to install his name on the building, ordering the letters removed, before the board revived the plan by voting to add his name as an inscription. Ticket sales and fundraising have since collapsed, the Post has reported.
Advocacy group Hands Off the Arts, which has campaigned against the changes, responded to the sculpture's removal on social media: "First they came for the facade, and now they come for the grounds."
