| |
|
|
|
A
Walking Tour of Lower Manhattan, Part II
At the northern tip of
Bowling Green is Arturo De Modica’s
giant bronze bull,
which welcomes you to the raging
aggressiveness of the Wall Street area.
But before you get to the heart of the
financial district, take a few minutes to
explore some of the nearby treasures. For
example, off of the bull’s left
flank is the old Cunard Line building --
home to the cruise company that once
provided the only way to travel to Europe
respectably. The building is now a post
office, but the original ceiling is in
place, and worth a look.
From here, we suggest you
make a right turn up Beaver Street and
walk 2 blocks to Hanover Square. To the
right is Abraham
De Peyster,
by George Edwin Bissell (1896), seated
comfortably in this vest-pocket park. We
like the image of this Dutch burgher in
his big boots and find it arresting here
in the increasingly contemporary west
side of the Financial District. Bissell
excelled at clothing, but wasn’t so
hot at anatomy, so his figures
(we’ll see another one later) are
always well-dressed. Take a peek at the
statue from behind and notice the nice
rough-hewn farm chair De Peyster is
sitting in, and the books crammed under
it. Across the street is another relic:
the India House, built in 1918.
Modern Sculpture in
the Financial District
Just east of Hanover Square
is 77 Water Street. On each of the four
corners of this modern, plaza-style
building is a contemporary sculpture. We
like the one directly in front of you on
the southwest corner: William Tarr’s
gently swaying Rejected Skin,
1969.
You are now in the newer
section of the financial district. Walk
north up Water Street to the intersection
of Pine Street. Two buildings come
together here on the east side of the
street: 88 Pine Street and 100 Wall
Street Plaza. At their confluence is Yu
Yu Yang’s 1969 Untitled, a
huge unreflective steel rectangle with a
circle cut out and a mirrored steel disk
resting just beyond it. Walk around and
through this visual tease to get its full
effect.
Note that the South Street
Seaport, which offers
plenty of dining options, is just a few
blocks east of here, so if you need a
place to rest your feet and grab a bite
to eat, a visit to the Seaport might be
in order.
Continuing the from the
corner of Water Street and Pine, walk a
block north to Maiden Lane and make a
left. Two blocks ahead of you is Louise
Nevelson Plaza,
the first public place to be named after
an artist in New York. Nevelson was an
eccentric, exotic soul whose work can be
found all over the city. Most of her
sculpture is "found" art: bits
of wood and metal painted black and bound
together. This park is all hers: Shadows
and Flags, (1977) 40 feet high, is
made up of 7 sculptures of Cor-ten steel
painted black.
At the back of the Plaza,
make a left on William Street and then
your next right up into Chase Manhattan
Plaza: directly in front of you is the
black and white Group of Four Trees by
Jean Dubuffet. Built in 1972, 43 feet
tall (5 stories) and made out of 25 tons
of aluminum, fiberglass and plastic
resin, this installation answers the
question "what do you do with a
plaza the size of 2 city blocks in front
of a 60 story building?" Regular
trees were just too puny (as you can see
from the landscaping on the west side of
the plaza). David Rockefeller
commissioned Jean Dubuffet to build this
great work, and then he gave it to Chase.
Dubuffet said of the piece "I hope
that they will not be taken as
representations of real trees, but as
semblances of the trust and fertility of
human thought."
Beyond the Dubuffet is the
Plaza’s original denizen, Isamu
Noguchi’s Sunken Plaza (1964).
Contrary to popular belief, this is not a
traditional Japanese rock garden, but a
totally abstract work. Noguchi hauled the
7 basalt rocks from the bottom of
Japan’s Uji River. The smallest
weighs one and a half tons. The two
largest have pipes running through them
to create waterfalls. When the fountain
is running the effect is varied from
gushing to trickling water. If you go
into the Chase Building, and down the
escalator, you can see the sunken plaza
from ground level. From here, the rocks
take on a different quality, varying from
heavy to light, and the floor undulates.
You can also see Jason Seley’s Triptych,
(1969) an interesting mess of
bruise-colored car fenders in front of a
wildly dated orange tile wall.
Wall Street's
Traditional Side
Walk down the West side of the Plaza and
make a left down Nassau Street. Cross
over Pine Street to Wall Street. On your
left is Federal Hall, which is considered
by many to be the finest example of Greek
Revival architecture in New York City.
The statue of George Washington
(1883) stands in front of the building,
in the approximate spot where Washington
took the oath of office to become the
first president of the United States on
April 30, 1789. John
Quincy Adams Ward’s
bronze depicts Washington lifting his
hand from the bible after being sworn in.
Inside Federal Hall is a lovely rotunda
and a small museum.
It is difficult to see the
whole statue from the bustling street, so
head up onto the platforms on the right
and left of the staircase so you can
appreciate Ward’s work in
proportion. While you’re up there,
look across the street to your right. The
New York Stock
Exchange is
on the corner. Up on the pediment is
another of Ward’s work, this one
harder to see. It’s a carving in
high-relief depicting (are you ready for
this?) "Integrity Protecting the
Works of Man" (1903). You can
definitely see Integrity standing in the
center with her arms out in front of her,
and lots of busy figures around on the
right and left. On weekdays you can also
usually see groups of traders in blue
jackets hanging around in front of the
exchange smoking and talking. Go inside
if you can: the Exchange is a great
building and offers some of the best
entertainment in the city.
More Tours
Have you enjoyed what you've
seen so far? Continue learning about
lower Manhattan's sculpture by taking Part I of
the tour, which takes you through the
Battery Park and Bowling Green, and then
proceeding on to Part III,
which describes the art work in and
around the municipal buildings in the
City Hall area.
by Andy Schwartz
|
