Tag Archives: public art

Herb Alpert’s Spirit Totem Monuments at Dante Park, Lincoln Center

Herb Alpert Spirit Totems

Hey, remember back in January when I met music industry legend Herb Alpert? That was cool. In addition to his exhibit at ACA Galleries, Herb also has this public installation of three of his monumental, 16-foot Bronze Spirit Totem Statues installed at Dante Park, a triangular lot at the intersection of Broadway, Amsterdam and 65th Street, just in front of Lincoln Center.

Herb Alpert Spirit Totems Close Up

Hers a close up on one of the sculptures which I managed to crop most of the foot traffic out of.

Herb Alpert Spirit Totems Signage

Many passersby stopped to admire, pose with and photograph the sculptures, but I’d bet that most of them had no idea that Alpert is the talented artist behind this work, because the above identifying sign is mounted very high up on a pole, not really in the sight lines of a person just walking by on the street. Geoffrey and I just happened to recognize them as we walked to the 1 Train after checking out the Beatles Exhibit, because they looked just like the sculptures that we saw at his ACA Galleries exhibit earlier in the year.

The sculptures will be on display until April 15th, 2014.

Book Review: Art & Place

ART & PLACE Cover
All Images Courtesy of Phaidon

Hundreds of books about Art are published every year and it’s challenging for even hardcore Art enthusiasts like me to keep track of the best ones. But I don’t think I’ve yet come across a coffee table-sized Art book that I wanted to peruse cover-to-cover for hours in the way I do Art & Place: Site-Specific Art of The Americas — a comprehensive collection of public art, due out from Phaidon Press in November, 2013.

Continue reading Book Review: Art & Place

Gilbert and George BillBoard at The High Line

Gilbert & George Highline Billboard
Photo By Gail

The newest commissioned artwork for the High Line Billboard just went up on September 3rd. This installation is a boldly-colored, stained glass-inspired Gilbert & George painting called Waking. The controversial art duo appear in the painting (from 1984) three times in the very center of the image and are surrounded on both sides by various male figures and faces. This photo was taken at approximately 7 PM, so you can see the sun is already starting to set, but this was the best I could do as I am not in this neighborhood very often.

Gilbert & George: Waking will be up through October 1st, 2013 in a parking lot adjacent to the The High Line, at West 18th Street and 10th Avenue in Manhattan.

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper Statue Now in Times Square

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper
Photo By Gail

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper is a life-size recreation by NY-based Sculptor Sergio Furnari of the famous photo by taken by Charles C. Ebbets in 1932. The original photo shows a group of 11 construction workers eating lunch on a crossbeam during the construction of the RCA Building (renamed the GE Building in 1988) at Rockefeller Center in NYC. The sculpture was completed in 2001 and spent five months (from May to October, 2002) on display at Ground Zero before going on tour. It moves around quite a bit, apparently, but currently the statue can be seen on the corner of 45th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

Note: The Statue is No Longer at this Address