They portray nothingness

Read this article.

Duncan Anderson hits this one out of the park. Modern monuments reflect nothing because their creators are ashamed and embarrassed for themselves and their country. They are expressing nothingness with their 'art' because they don't want to bring any attention to the honor and sacrifice of those these monuments are meant to honor. The artists themselves can not conceive of making such a "useless" personal sacrifice and as such, can not conceive of why anyone else would so they reflect this lack of empathy with their 'art'.

Update 11/13/07:

I though about this some more, over night and I managed to get worked up all over again. One of the comments in the article had to do with an effort to get a flag pole and flag added to the monument and the push-back from the artist. I am sure the argument was that any change would change the "vision" of the artist and that is a major no no in the art world. Artists have it so much easier today than they did generations ago and have been given so much more power for no apparent reason. In prior centuries artists worked either for patrons or on consignment. In either case, you mostly delivered what you were told to produce. Some big name artists had more freedom of expression "on other peoples dime" than your average artist but mostly, you produced what you were told to. Today artists expect to produce their "vision" and have everyone take it as is. They no longer produce "spec work" even when being specifically paid. They take our (mostly) government money and are either given or demand absolute freedom to produce whatever they wish and resist any attempts to mold their vision to our wants. That is how you wind up with public art that is neither art or for the public and monuments that stand for nothing.