A Second Look

There are many percs in doing a website like this. Discovering things I never new and learning new things about those I was familiar with. The most exciting are the big surprises - unexpected stories behind things which appear to be rather ordinary. In a city absolutely saturated with people and things, looking over and overlooking are standard fare.
When I ran across this striking sculptural light form at North Cove Yacht Harbor behind the World Financial Center, I assumed that it was just an above average ornamental light. I thought it would be difficult to identify this sculpture and glean any information about it and its creator. Not at all. This piece and its mate in granite, entitled North Cove Pylons, was created by renowned sculptor, Martin Puryear. An article here in Sculpture Magazine about the work. Puryear has all the makings, training, education, experience, and accolades of a major artist with feature articles (The New Yorker) a MacArthur grant, and major museum shows like the 30-year retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art - here is a YouTube video of the exhibit.
Puryear, who is African American, studied native crafts while serving in the Peace Corp in Sierra Leone and later studied woodwork and design at the Swedish Royal Academy of Art. On his return to the US, he studied at Yale University where he received an MFA in sculpture. Biography, interviews, slideshow, photos and videos here.
I am finding that works of public art in NYC which I assume are perhaps whimsical, casually placed and/or created by unknown individuals are often by major artists and go relatively unappreciated.
So, take a second look at the obvious. Or, come here and let me do it for you :)

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