It’s still autumn, the leaves remain on the trees in Central Park, but some arts programmers are thinking about spring. Or maybe they are counter-programming.
In addition to the New Museum’s new facade sculpture, Rose II, by German artist Isa Genzken, which was installed last Saturday (below), New York City’s Parks and Recreation Department, the Fund for the Park Avenue Sculpture Committee, and Paul Kasmin Gallery said the other day that they are putting Will Ryman’s The Roses, a new site-specific installation, along Park Avenue beginning January 25.
So New York will be abloom in mid-winter.
Ryman is making 38 sculptures of pink and red rose blossoms, rising as high as 25 feet, plus 20 scattered rose petals that will be sprinkled on the Park Avenue Mall, mostly between 63rd and 65th Streets. The roses themselves will stretch from 57th to 67th Streets, ending near the Park Avenue Armory (rendering above).
It’s Ryman’s first public art exhibition, and will run through spring — until May 31.
“In my work I always try to combine fantasy with reality,” Ryman said in a press release from Kasmin. (There’s also a press release from the Parks Department.) “In the case of The Roses, I tried to convey New York City’s larger than life qualities through scale; creating blossoms which are imposing, humorous, and hopefully beautiful.”
Whatever you think about the art, you know that both of these installations will bring smiles to onlookers’ faces. And that’s a good thing.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of the New Museum (top) and Paul Kasmin Gallery (bottom)