Famous Ankles

Okay, I admit it. I spend too much time looking up at one of my favorite buildings in all of NYC. And let’s fact it, the Chrysler Building is on everybody’s short list of favorite buildings in NYC.

Maybe that’s why I have walked by a 1961 sculpture by Jan Peter Stern called “Windward” about a bazillion times without noticing it. It’s only about a block away.

Or, maybe it’s because they have it tucked away in a little corner.

Or, maybe it’s because it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the word “windward” at all. To me, it’s just another bit of artistic flotsom from the 1960s.

But if you want to see it, it’s on the southeast corner of the intersection.

-H

At Vanderbilt Avenue and 46th Street (right across the street from Grand Central, on the west side) is a nice little place with the initials YC.

It’s the Yale Club. There are a whole bunch of these little university-based clubs in NYC. The only one I’ve been to was the Princeton Club, but that was by invitation from a vendor at my company (the vendor’s owner was, I think, a member).

But the site is more than the current location of the Yale Club. I recently spotted the plaque below just at the edge of the building.

It reads “At the British artillery Park near this site, Nathan Hale, Captain in the U.S. Army, Yale Graduate of 1773, apprehended within enemy lines while seeking information, was executed on the morning of September 22, 1776. His last words were ‘I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country’ Erected by Mary Washington Colonial Capter, D.A.R. and the Yale Club of New York”

I hadn’t realized it had taken place so close to where I live. Nor had I ever realized how early in the Revolution that his hanging had occured, only about 3 months into it.

-H

Well, NYC is always changing and Lever House has updated its pretty bad artwork (at least in my estimation) with equal artwork (also in my estimation).

But they moved it indoors! I guess that’s what they consider progress.

I’m not any sort of art critic, but I know what I find interesting versus non-interesting. The new artist’s work this time isn’t bad in any aesthetic sense. It’s actually interesting in one or two ways. But not sufficiently so.

First, the good part. They removed the gutted “Virgin Mother” and put in some plants.

I fully approve. Nice planting. Kudos to the grounds staff.

The new artwork is inside the Lever House lobby. Artist Richard Dupont has a display going on until May 3 where he made a series of images of himself, in a sort of sculpture. Actually, into nine identical life-sized (I suppose) sculptures of himself. But they aren’t identical and they aren’t life-sized. Each is supposed to be different and only looks life-sized from one angle. What that means is that they are squashed thin or flat or not-squashed depending on the angle. Oh, and the figures are all naked.

When I looked at it, the place wasn’t open to the public so I couldn’t take a closer look. All I could really see was that they were actually pretty well done, but I don’t understand the point of the “squashing”. There’s some text in the window that says “Dupont has created nine self-portraits that are laterally and horizontally manipulated so that they are radically distorted and can be only be seen as an accurate, complete body from one vantage point.” If the point of the sculpture is that we can’t use one viewpoint to truly know the man…that ain’t news. In fact, it is more accurate to portray that sort of thing by showing that no angle and no single or multiple perspective really gives you a true view of the man, naked or not. Not even of ourselves. The real truth is that we are unknowable.

But what do I know? I guess I’m just an ankler who is jealous that other people get to do such interpretations at Lever House.

I do have to admit that I am looking forward to the future of Lever House artwork. We’ve had a nude, giant, gutted, pregnant woman. And we’ve had squashed, mostly-life-sized, naked men. I’m betting on hundreds of miniature, shaved dogs and cats in some form for the next exhibit. Ever seen a shaved collie? Or maybe they get clothes like Barbie. (She’s got plenty of outfits to spare.) Malibu Poodle!

Actually, I might like that, so it won’t happen. I’ll keep an eye out, though.

-H