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City Hall Park |
My other two additional site visits both focused on public art, so I thought it would be nice to stick to my theme. However I wasn’t quite sure what my third project would be until I walked by City Hall Park and noticed several distinctive metal sculptures which I knew right away to be the work of Alexander Calder. I have enjoyed Calder’s work since I was first introduced to it in elementary school at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I distinctly remember writing a response to his giant mobile “Ghost” which hangs in museum's Great Stair Hall. More recently, I have seen his work on display both on Benjamin Franklin Parkway which is right near the museum and at Storm King Art Center, a giant outdoor sculpture museum in the Hudson Valley. Encountering Calder’s work once again was quite a pleasant surprise.
I did my research and found that Alexander Calder in New York includes five “stabiles,” or freestanding sculptures, located throughout the park, and one mobile hanging inside of City Hall itself, and is a collaboration between Mayor Bloomberg and the Public Art Fund. The exhibition is the fourth to be organized in City Hall Park through this collaboration since 2003 and will be up through 2007 at which point the works will be returned to The Calder Foundation and The Whitney Museum of American Art. In reading the press release, the mayor seems very enthusiastic about public arts programs, and hopes that Alexander Calder in New York “will inspire New Yorkers and visitors alike.”
I think that parks, especially ones as prominently located as this one, are fantastic places to display art. Especially in New York City where many people don’t have a patch of green to call their own, and especially now that the weather is so nice, people spend a lot of time in parks. Though there are countless art appreciators, particularly in this city, who actively seek out art, there are arguably even more who don’t. This is not necessarily because they don’t appreciate art, but perhaps it just doesn’t rank as high on their list of priorities as it does for people who make a point to visit museums and galleries. Therefore, by installing art in a place like City Hall Park, numerous people who wouldn’t otherwise see it are exposed to it each day in a much more passive way. Instead of consciously traveling to an art exhibit, all they have to do is keep their eyes open. Calder’s sculptures are particularly conducive to this situation due to their magnitude and color, especially “Jerusalem Stabile,” a bright red-orange work that spans 24 feet. Even for New Yorkers, these are the kind of things that are hard to miss.
Jerusalem Stabile definitely makes an impression. Unlike the other stabiles which are located within the park green, this piece can be found right outside the perimeter, only several feet away from an entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge subway stop. Because it is outside of the park, it also has a different background: the Brooklyn Bridge itself, in addition to numerous skyscrapers, which definitely adds to the viewing experience. The other sculpture which really stood out to me was “Le Chien en Trois Couleurs (Three-Colored Dog),” due, not surprisingly, to its stunning colors: black, a deep but vibrant blue, and the same bright color from Jerusalem Stabile which to me is Calder’s signature color. Though the rest of the stabiles were all black, they were by no means bland. Something that’s always intrigued me about Calder’s work is that they come across as so abstract, but often has very concrete names. Two of the other works on display in City Hall Park are named “The Cock’s Comb” and “Seven-Legged Beast.” To be fair, no one can say for sure exactly what a beast with seven legs would look like, but I have a feeling that when asked to imagine one, very few people come up with a picture resembling Calder’s work. But this is where the charm lies.
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