Café Discovery: statuary

Last time I displayed some photos from the Haupt Conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden, which Debbie and I visited on January 8 in order to see the Holiday Train Show.

The Train Show photos will be shown in the future, but that will take awhile since I have 79 of them to pour through…and then there are the ones Debbie took with her camera.

But that’s not all we did while we were there.  There was an exhibit called Kiku:  The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum at the LuEsther T. Mertz Library which I wanted to see very much, to add to the knowledge of the Edo Period I gained in my visit to LACMA last summer.

They didn’t allow photos in the museum, so I made do with photos of some public art out in front of the library.

If it hadn’t been so freezing cold, we would definitely have spent the time necessary to view all of the elements of the exhibit Moore in America: Monumental Sculpture at the New York Botanical Garden (pdf).  But I did manage to get two views of Hill Arches by Henry Moore.  

Clicking on the images will get you much larger versions.  If it weren’t the case that NYBG has a policy of “all you kids off the lawn,” I could have gotten some close-up detail.

At the head of Tulip Tree Allee, which leads to the front of the library is the Lillian Goldman Fountain of Life, designed by Charles (Carl) E. Tefft, 1903-5.

The Fountain of Life at the New York Botanical Garden stands in front of the Museum Building which houses the garden shop, library, and herbarium. A fountain was included in the original plan for the Garden approved in 1897 by The Board of Managers. The fountain was an important component of the Garden’s layout and several design competitions were held for it, beginning in 1900. These initial efforts were disappointing and the Board turned to the National Sculpture Society for advice. In April of 1903, the design by sculptor, lithographer and teacher, Carl E. Tefft was selected. On the base of the lively, Berniniesque bronze fountain are heroic figures; a female nude astride a rearing horse, a boy trying to control another rearing horse, a second boy sitting on the back of a dolphin. In the larger basin below, a bronze merman sitting astride a gigantic crab and a mermaid are startled by the scene above them. The work was purchased by the City in 1905 at a cost of $20,000. It was cast by the cire-perdue process at the Roman Bronze Works in Greenpoint, Long Island.

On the return to New Jersey I snapped some shots of The Commuters by Grigory Gurevich, sort of.  At least there is some dispute to this story by the 7-year old who was cast for the girl on the left of the photo to the left.

Getting a good image of the ticket seller was an extreme challenge and I mostly feel like I was not up to it.

The photo below was my favorite of the three, what with the live person walking by on the right.