I just got home from NYC and saw the statue. I liked it. The braided hair in bronze is accomplished. It looks like it is flexible and could be moving. The rest is minimalist. The face is beautifully composed, relaxed, not emoting anger, pride, or a kiss-off of any kind. She is juxtaposed with the statues all over the city of white male military figures or mythological creatures. She is neither idealized nor objectified--for once, an ordinary person, a female person, depicted as worthy of our full attention, commanding it without having to compete for it with T&A or bling or social position. She's not buying the Ozempic or Wegovy or Zepbound. What is this huge bronze doing there? What is it saying? Obviously, it speaks to different people in different ways. It is not an apotheosis of any kind; on the contrary, she is just standing there in her being, and that is more than enough. How many of you have actually seen the sculpture in person? I saw it Thursday night in the rain and the massive bronze was dripping and glistening with the steady rain, all the flashing Times Square commercial lights reflecting in the gravity-moving droplets. I wasn't interested in it from seeing it in the media. I just happened to be there, just after seeing Good Night, and Good Luck (another story) We all know we have to bring ourselves willingly and openly to the experience of a large work like that. Surprisingly, I liked it a lot.
Thank you, John. That's surely a classic. I pulled this quotation from the NY Review of books piece, "The artist portrays the holy man as hallowed and ravaged by the revelation that he has seen and must now convey. Wrapped in massive drapery that is at once weighty and floating, Habakkuk hovers and stares: a visitor from a realm where we mere mortals dare not go."
This offering of yours does underscore a deliberate choice Price is making in his work. The figures he is depicting at larger-than-life scale are mere mortals. What makes them larger than life is a mind that sees them with that noble vision, perhaps their spirits, their inherent value in simply being here doing what they've got to do. They're not characters from great literature, not icons of any kind. How dare he? The qualities of the statues themselves will not place them in the all-time greats of world art, but they're decent and worth experiencing and responding to.
we can always agree to disagree. I will add however that 'ordinary person' is one of those ideas that I find problematic. Its almost a a kitsch idea, in a sense. And I think this is the start of what I find to be the problem. Its something I have heard a number of times in reviews of this statue (and his others). Would be interesting to know why this statue suggests 'ordinary' (whatever that is supposed to mean) to viewers. Or why ordinary is a virtue in this context.
A very good point, John--what IS an "ordinary person" anyway, and why does this read on the sculpture come to some minds? I can say why I think it occurred to me to say it with regard to this bronze. It is almost entirely in contrast to the many other publicly displayed sculptures around the city of New York, as I was saying in my comment: primarily men in military garb or creatures of fantasy, mythological, ornate, cherubs, sometimes animals, such as the lions in front of the main branch of NYPL on 5th Ave. "Grounded in the Stars" is a person in a simple t-shirt, pants, and closed shoes, no push-up bra, no jewelry, no signs of special status, someone you might see on the bus.
I'll add that the title, "Grounded in the Stars" is a guide, it basically says what Joni Mitchell said better, "we are stardust," or the message that we are all made of the same stuff, which the more religious would articulate as "all children of God."
At Hauser & Wirth the artist, Thomas J. Price is showing a series of these sculptures https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/thomas-j-price-resilience-of-scale/. They don't have presence as digital photos online. Just putting this here to show that he is making a number of these. The Times Square location added much to the statue I saw. He's not a Michaelangelo! But the other Hauser & Wirth location has a William Kentridge show that is of an entirely different order of magnitude, on until August first (I think). On MUBI you can watch the associated 9-episode film, Self-Portrait as a Coffeepot. Absolutely fantastic. Well worth your time.
I just got home from NYC and saw the statue. I liked it. The braided hair in bronze is accomplished. It looks like it is flexible and could be moving. The rest is minimalist. The face is beautifully composed, relaxed, not emoting anger, pride, or a kiss-off of any kind. She is juxtaposed with the statues all over the city of white male military figures or mythological creatures. She is neither idealized nor objectified--for once, an ordinary person, a female person, depicted as worthy of our full attention, commanding it without having to compete for it with T&A or bling or social position. She's not buying the Ozempic or Wegovy or Zepbound. What is this huge bronze doing there? What is it saying? Obviously, it speaks to different people in different ways. It is not an apotheosis of any kind; on the contrary, she is just standing there in her being, and that is more than enough. How many of you have actually seen the sculpture in person? I saw it Thursday night in the rain and the massive bronze was dripping and glistening with the steady rain, all the flashing Times Square commercial lights reflecting in the gravity-moving droplets. I wasn't interested in it from seeing it in the media. I just happened to be there, just after seeing Good Night, and Good Luck (another story) We all know we have to bring ourselves willingly and openly to the experience of a large work like that. Surprisingly, I liked it a lot.
as a point of reference I want to share two reviews of my favorite sculpture probably of all time. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/entranced-by-donatello
and https://www.nybooks.com/online/2015/03/04/donatello-brought-stone-life/
Thank you, John. That's surely a classic. I pulled this quotation from the NY Review of books piece, "The artist portrays the holy man as hallowed and ravaged by the revelation that he has seen and must now convey. Wrapped in massive drapery that is at once weighty and floating, Habakkuk hovers and stares: a visitor from a realm where we mere mortals dare not go."
This offering of yours does underscore a deliberate choice Price is making in his work. The figures he is depicting at larger-than-life scale are mere mortals. What makes them larger than life is a mind that sees them with that noble vision, perhaps their spirits, their inherent value in simply being here doing what they've got to do. They're not characters from great literature, not icons of any kind. How dare he? The qualities of the statues themselves will not place them in the all-time greats of world art, but they're decent and worth experiencing and responding to.
we can always agree to disagree. I will add however that 'ordinary person' is one of those ideas that I find problematic. Its almost a a kitsch idea, in a sense. And I think this is the start of what I find to be the problem. Its something I have heard a number of times in reviews of this statue (and his others). Would be interesting to know why this statue suggests 'ordinary' (whatever that is supposed to mean) to viewers. Or why ordinary is a virtue in this context.
A very good point, John--what IS an "ordinary person" anyway, and why does this read on the sculpture come to some minds? I can say why I think it occurred to me to say it with regard to this bronze. It is almost entirely in contrast to the many other publicly displayed sculptures around the city of New York, as I was saying in my comment: primarily men in military garb or creatures of fantasy, mythological, ornate, cherubs, sometimes animals, such as the lions in front of the main branch of NYPL on 5th Ave. "Grounded in the Stars" is a person in a simple t-shirt, pants, and closed shoes, no push-up bra, no jewelry, no signs of special status, someone you might see on the bus.
I'll add that the title, "Grounded in the Stars" is a guide, it basically says what Joni Mitchell said better, "we are stardust," or the message that we are all made of the same stuff, which the more religious would articulate as "all children of God."
At Hauser & Wirth the artist, Thomas J. Price is showing a series of these sculptures https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/thomas-j-price-resilience-of-scale/. They don't have presence as digital photos online. Just putting this here to show that he is making a number of these. The Times Square location added much to the statue I saw. He's not a Michaelangelo! But the other Hauser & Wirth location has a William Kentridge show that is of an entirely different order of magnitude, on until August first (I think). On MUBI you can watch the associated 9-episode film, Self-Portrait as a Coffeepot. Absolutely fantastic. Well worth your time.
Happy Birthday Lex!
Anne Carson is a year older than John. It is a wonder she's still able tp speak. :[