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sculpture

Italian Heroes In New York: What Purpose Did Statues Serve?

December 14, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Bust of Italian Patriot Giuseppe MazziniNationalism of the nineteenth century represents very different values to those of our era. With the present rise of frenzied flag-waving and militant xenophobia, it is hard to understand the cult status achieved by foreign revolutionary figures such as Lafayette, who was honored as the “French Hero of the American Revolution.”

In 1878 a bust of Giuseppe Mazzini was unveiled in New York City‘s Central Park. A decade later, on the sixth anniversary of his death, Giuseppe Garibaldi was memorialized with a bronze statue in Washington Square Park. Why were these relatively unknown Italian insurgents given such a prestigious presence in New York? [Read more…] about Italian Heroes In New York: What Purpose Did Statues Serve?

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Central Park, French History, Greenwich Village, Immigration, Italian History, Manhattan, Monuments, New York City, Revolutions of 1848, sculpture, Staten Island

Statue of Liberty National Monument To Begin Improvement Project

October 3, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Statue of Liberty courtesy Wikimedia user ElcobbolaThe National Park Service has awarded a $22 million construction contract to make repairs to the historic fort that serves as the foundation for the Statue of Liberty and its pedestal.

Funded by the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), the project is expected to make drainage and safety improvements that will help preserve the structure and enhance accessibility for visitors. [Read more…] about Statue of Liberty National Monument To Begin Improvement Project

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Fort Wood, Historic Preservation, Liberty Island, National Park Service, New York City, New York Harbor, sculpture, Statue of Liberty

Art Supplies Thrift Shop Opens In The Adirondacks

September 26, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

bluseed studios in saranac lakeThe Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce recently celebrated the opening of Shop at TheBlu, a new art supplies thrift shop at BluSeed Studios in Saranac Lake with a ribbon cutting. [Read more…] about Art Supplies Thrift Shop Opens In The Adirondacks

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Events Tagged With: Adirondacks, Fiber Arts - Textiles, painting, Saranac Lake, sculpture

Joseph Brant’s Face: A State Capitol Mystery

September 8, 2022 by David Fiske 8 Comments

Portrait of John Francis BrinesA recent article in the Albany Times Union, “The Enduring Mystery of a Mohawk Warrior Bust at the Capitol,” (online edition, July 22, 2022) noted that there is a sculpted face of Joseph Brant on the exterior of the State Capitol building in Albany, New York.

Researched and written by journalist Chris Carola, it questions why Brant, a Native American who supported the British during the American Revolution – and who wreaked havoc on a number of white settlements – was honored by having his visage on such a prominent edifice. [Read more…] about Joseph Brant’s Face: A State Capitol Mystery

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, American Revolution, Architecture, Cultural History, Henry Hudson, Indigenous History, Joseph Brant, Oswego, Political History, Rhode Island, sculpture

Comic Book Artist Jack Binder & Fort William Henry History

September 6, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

figures created by Jack BinderWhat might Lake George have looked like 265 years ago, on the eve of the French attack on Fort William Henry?

That’s the focus of the display in the entryway to the Fort museum and historical attraction. It includes three figures – an American provincial, a British regular and a ranger, all created by the late Jack Binder for the reconstructed fort, which opened to the public in 1955. [Read more…] about Comic Book Artist Jack Binder & Fort William Henry History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Archaeology, Art History, Battle of Lake George, Fort William Henry, French And Indian War, Jewish History, Lake George, Military History, New York City, painting, Pop Culture History, sculpture, Warren County

Julien Levy & Art at the Heart of Manhattan

August 24, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Berenice Abbot’s portrait of Julien Levy in ParisThe late 1920s and 1930s were crucial years in New York’s rise as an international artistic center. Cultural contacts between Europe and the United States multiplied. American artists who had studied in Paris returned with fresh ambitions; dollar rich patrons were willing to finance new initiatives; the First World War had unsettled European artists and gallerists, many of whom settled in New York. They were joined by others who fled the Nazi threat. Manhattan was turning into a Mecca of modernism where a multi-national cohort of artists, dealers and investors mixed and mingled.

By our standards the art world was relatively small. At any one time in that epoch, there were probably fewer than fifteen galleries active in New York with only a handful concentrating on contemporary art. A pioneering role was played by Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery on Fifth Avenue. Operational since 1905, the gallery introduced the Parisian avant-garde to an American audience. In modernist Manhattan, Stieglitz was the Godfather. [Read more…] about Julien Levy & Art at the Heart of Manhattan

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Cultural History, Film History, Jewish History, Manhattan, modernism, Museum of Modern Art, Museums, New York City, Photography, sculpture

Albany’s Philip Schuyler Statue, Slavery and History Reconsidered

July 21, 2022 by Bruce Dearstyne 5 Comments

Statue of Philip Schuyler in front of Albany City HallA statue of Albany’s Philip Schuyler (1733-1804) has stood in front of City Hall since its dedication by Mayor William S. Hackett on June 25, 1925. The statue was a gift to the city from George C. Hawley, a beer baron whose family owned the Dobler Brewery in Albany, in memory of his wife Theodora M. Hawley.

In 2020, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan ordered it removed because Schuyler was a slaveholder. As Mayor Sheehan noted, removing the statue is one way of acknowledging the enduring legacy of slavery. [Read more…] about Albany’s Philip Schuyler Statue, Slavery and History Reconsidered

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, American Revolution, Black History, Military History, Monuments, Philip Schuyler, Political History, sculpture, Slavery

Dutch-American Stories: The “Patron Saint of New York”

May 3, 2022 by Jaap Jacobs Leave a Comment

treaty of friendship and trade between the United States and the Dutch RepublicThe bonds that connect the American and Dutch peoples have been commemorated in various ways and at various levels. Dutch-American Friendship Day is a well-established annual event at the governmental level. In New York City, the historical memory of Petrus Stuyvesant has recently become controversial, but in the twentieth century his image was iconic.

On April 19th, 1782, the Dutch States General decided to recognize John Adams as the envoy of the United States of America. It was the culmination of a contentious political process in which the Dutch Republic’s constituent provinces (Friesland being the first) instructed their delegates to vote in favor of accepting Adams’s nomination. With Adams in place as America’s minister plenipotentiary, the Dutch Republic reciprocated by naming Pieter Johan van Berckel as its first ambassador. [Read more…] about Dutch-American Stories: The “Patron Saint of New York”

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Dutch History, Dutch-American History Series, Manhattan, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, New York City, Peter Stuyvesant, sculpture

Life and Artistic Legacy of Sidney Simon

April 22, 2022 by Clare Sheridan Leave a Comment

crossroads of rockland historyOn the April episode of Crossroads of Rockland History we explored the life and artistic legacy of Sidney A. Simon (1917–1997). On the occasion of an exhibition of his works at the Blue Hill Art and Cultural Center (Pearl River, NY), two of Simon’s children, Teru Simon and Mark Simon, joined Clare Sheridan to share memories of their father and their own recollections of growing up on South Mountain Road in Rockland County. [Read more…] about Life and Artistic Legacy of Sidney Simon

Filed Under: Arts, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Education, painting, Podcasts, Rockland County, sculpture

Sculptor Edmonia Lewis Honored With Black Heritage Postal Stamp

January 29, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Lewis StampThe United States Postal Service will issued the 45th Black Heritage stamp on January 26th, 2022 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. in honor of Edmonia Lewis, a Black and Native American sculptor who gained international recognition.

Edmonia Lewis was born in 1844 to an Ojibwa/Chippewa woman from Albany and a former enslaved man from Haiti. Both parents died when Wildfire, as she was called, was young. She went to live with her mother’s sisters. In later years her brother Samuel supported her and in 1856 she entered New York Central College. She then went to Oberlin College in Ohio from 1859 to 1863. [Read more…] about Sculptor Edmonia Lewis Honored With Black Heritage Postal Stamp

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Albany, Art History, Black History, Cortland County, Cultural History, Edmonia Lewis, Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, Haiti, Indigenous History, Madison County Historical Society, McGraw Historical Society, sculpture, womens history

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