Leetle walk
Tuesday, 6 October 2015
We took the train to the south end of Manhattan, at Battery Park. This statue honors Merchant Mariners. That’s Lady Liberty off on the left edge of the horizon.
The guys trying to save their comrade now face The Sphere, a 1971 Fritz Koenig piece that stood between the two centers of the World Trade Center, and was damaged by the debris that fell on 9/11.
Yeah, today was the day for outdoor sculptures, as we walked from the Staten Island Ferry terminal at Battery Park up all the way to Grand Central Terminal. Not directly…so many, many steps (devices differ on the count, but all indicate something like 20K).
We found crowds of Asian tourists and a few others at the Charging Bull (Arturo Di Modica, 1989). They posed next to the head, often holding a horn, and grinned for their photographer-friends. The other end of the statue they also photographed, but from a distance and without touching the bronze surface or posing next to it. Interesting.
Buildings are also sculpture, right? Daniel Burnham’s Flatiron Building was completed in 1902. I suspect the interior space is difficult to use, especially those nose-rooms. From the ground—compelling.