Within the Sixties the Hudson River shoreline beneath Chambers Avenue was the positioning of abandoned and dilapidated docks. Because the landfill that may be developed into a brand new neighborhood — Battery Park Metropolis, consisting of housing, parks, and retail and workplace areas — the Battery Park Metropolis Authority started commissioning mid-career New York artists to assist rework the rising space right into a showcase for brand spanking new public artwork in new public area. That is their story.
Few modern artists have had entry to wide-open areas in Manhattan, or breathtaking riverfront areas because the canvas for his or her visions; fewer nonetheless have had such affect and lasting affect as Mary Miss, Ned Smyth, R.M. Fischer, Siah Armajani, Tom Otterness, and Martin Puryear. Hear pioneers of public artwork Mary Miss, Ned Smyth, and R.M. Fischer focus on the liberty and challenges they encountered, and the often-hands-on options they devised whereas engaged on new land in decrease Manhattan. Their monumental installations “South Cove”, “Higher Room”, and “Rector Gate” stay as standard and influential now as they had been when the artists broke floor almost 40 years in the past.
Pioneers of Public Art, New York in the 1980s and 1990s continues Battery Park Metropolis Authority’s ongoing legacy as a world-class vacation spot to expertise the artwork of our time – at all times free and absolutely accessible to all. Our purpose is to welcome, encourage, and interact various communities to attach with the distinctive creative expertise that’s at all times on view in Battery Park Metropolis.
The Public Artwork assortment in Battery Park Metropolis contains work by Ned Smyth (1987), Siah Armajani (1988), Richard Artschwager (1988), Scott Burton (1988), R.M. Fischer (1988), Mary Miss (1988), Tom Otterness (1992), Demetri Porphyrios (1992), Jim Dine (1993), Martin Puryear (1995), Louise Bourgeois (1995), Tony Cragg (1996), Ugo Attardi (1997), Brian Tolle (2002), Thierry Noir (2004), Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil (2005), Autumn Ewalt and Dharmesh Patel (2019), Gianni and Jill Biagi (2020), and Segundo Cardona and Antonio Martorell (2021).
Battery Park Metropolis Authority additionally manages a short lived public artwork program that has offered art work by Agnes Denes, Beverley Pepper, Roy Lichtenstein, Tyrone Mitchell, Muna Malik, Mildred Howard, Shuli Sade, and different artists. The present set up on show, James Yaya Hough’s “Justice Mirrored,” (2022) is offered in partnership with the Artwork for Justice Fund.
Pioneers of Public Art, New York in the 1980s and 1990s will happen on January 10, 2024, at 6:30pm (EST) at 6 River Terrace in New York Metropolis. The occasion is free, and RSVPs are inspired.
Go to bpca.ny.gov for extra info and to see movies concerning the artwork and artists.