New York - Random Walk

I've tried to reflect the beauty of Rockefeller Center and the surrounding artwork in New York, Rockefeller Plaza and around. This entry presents nude sculptures which I've came across visiting different parts of Manhattan. Although the theme of this blog is Human Body in Public Art, I sometimes cannot resist taking a photo in a museum or exhibition - if I see something original or beautiful. That's why I've included some sculptures from Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan in this post. I also consider sculptures taken in galleries as public if they can be seen from outside. Or, sometimes, inside, but trying not to...

Time Warner Center. Eve by Fernando Botero. This was taken by an old pre-smart phone, as the battery of my camera died all of a sudden. There is  Adam nearby, with a shiny little penis - the result of  visitors affection.

Abundance, by Karl Bitter, featuring the Roman goddess Pomona (1915). The model, Audrey Munson, was a model for multiple statues in New York city. The first actress who appeared fully nude in a movie as a sculptor's model, she died at an age of 104 after spending her last 65 years in a psychiatric facility. More about Audrey Munson in Woman in Stone 

An intimate scene behind the Maine Monument at the Columbus Circle. 1913, probably by Attillo Piccirilli. The monument is dedicated to 266 seamen who perished in the battleship Maine in 1898 in harbor of Havana, Cuba..

 

Bust of Sylvette, by Pablo Picasso - gift to New York University. It took me some time to figure this one out, but there is indeed a nude body hidden in the plain sight. Picasso...

Outside a small gallery in Chelsea

 
Mosaic gallery in Soho

Street sceene in Soho. Human body in public...

 

This photo of Mihail Shemyakin's Cybele, goddess of fertility and abundance, was taken in the pre-digital era. It stands on Prince Street, has eight pairs of breasts and four buttocks. Fertility it is...

 

Those two happy ladies were actually spotted in Lincoln, New Hampshire

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The following sculptures are not exactly public, as they are located in Museum of Modern Art or Metropolitan museum, but their beauty and importance warant them a place of honor in this blog - as reference points and works of prominent sculptors.

The River Began, by Aristide Maillol. NY MOMA.

Aristide Maillol, Mediterrenian. NY MOMA.

 

 

Bather, Jean-Antoine Hudon, 1792. The figure belonged to a fountain made for Lois-Philippe d'Orlean. Metropolitan Museum.

 

Metropolitan Museum

 

Metropolitan Museum

 

Standing Woman(Elevation). Gaston Lachaise, 1927. From the description in Metropolitan Museum: "Lachaise found his lifelong muse in the ample figure of Isabel Dutaud Nagie, whom he met in 1903 and later married...an archetypal image of ideal beauty"

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New York, Rockefeller Plaza and around

Rockefeller plaza is a major New York attractions and home to various architectural marvels. What is often overlooked is an array of splendid sculptures and reliefs surrounding the plaza and the Rockefeller center. In terms of my PeTit Project, New York provided me with a large number of beautiful nudes - from  large imposing statues to small reliefs on  office building door. See it for yourself.

 

Venus De Milo, by Jim Dine, 6th Avenue at west 53rd Street. The ancient original is on display  in Louvre, I believe

 

 

Actually there are three Venuses on the same corner, emerging from a water pool

 

NBC Studios entrance to GE Building

 

Another entrance with more reliefs

 

Gift of Earth to Mankind

 

Commerce and Industry by Attilio Piccirilli above the doorway of the  International building at 636 Fifth Avenue. Was installed in May 1936. The guy is Commerce (for some reason holding on to a sledgehammer), and the girl represents Industry

 

British Empire Building (Cole Haan) -"Industries of Great Britain" by Carl Paul Jenewin (1933)

 

Tobacco...

... and Cotton

 

La Maison Francaise - The history of France by Rene Paul Chamberllan

 

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Radio City Music Hall

 

Drama by Hildreth Meiere

 

 Song by Hildreth Meiere

 

Plaque of the Rockettes on the facade of Radio City Music Hall. Rockettes were a precision dance company which performed out of Radio City Music Hall for 77 years - five shows a day, seven days a week. I don't think they were performing topless, as the plaque may  suggest. Still - nice forms.

 Radio City Facade

 

 Bas relief by Robert Garrison.

 Evening, by Robert Garrison

 Radio City Mosaic

 

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 Warwick Hotel

 Polichrome bas relief, 30 Rockfeller Plaza. Light, floating in the clouds - by Lee Lawree, 1937 

 

 Channel Gardens and Promenade - Mankind Figure - Maiden, by Paul Manship, 1933

 

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 Three beauties swimming with fishes. Not even dolphins...

 

 

 

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Scandinavia

Scandinavians are not shy about their bodies.Oslo City Hall is completely surrounded by sculptures of beautiful scantly clad women, man and children. You can find a sculpture in the middle of the street which, if placed somewhere in an American city, would cause controversy and a lot of media attention. Not it the cold and, presumably, boring Scandinavian cities.

The Little  Mermaid - a Copenhagen icon and tourist attraction. By Edward Ericsen, 1913. She was vandalized many times, and twice  decapitated - last time in 1998, when the head was returned and reattached.

In the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark. Not sure what it's supposed to mean, but nice and funny

In Copenhagen

Norway. Oslo City Hall 

Mural inside Oslo city Hall

A fountain in front of  Oslo City Hall

A closeup of the fountain

Norway, Bergen. A small park in a residential area.

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The sculptures below are from the worlds famous Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, designed by Gustav Vigeland during a period of time from 1906 to 1947. The park features 212 bronze sculptures, and human body is at the center stage in this enormous and most amazing set of monuments and sculptures.

Having fun

Life is  not always beautiful, but it is life.