More Scenes from the Sculpture Gardens

My last item, where you got to hear me as well as read me, was, fittingly, my 1,000th post since I began this dubious exercise of blogging. That somehow seems like a more important anniversary than how long I’ve been doing it.
For the many new CultureGrrl visitors who have flocked to my blog this sleepy Sunday morning from the WNYC link, here’s an expanded photo essay from my sculpture-garden rambles:
FROM THE GROUNDS FOR SCULPTURE, HAMILTON, NJ

Here’s the photo that somehow didn’t get reproduced in the WNYC slideshow today: This 3-D reimagined “Renoir”—called “Family Secret” by its sculptor, J. Seward Johnson Jr., scion of the Johnson & Johnson family and founder of Grounds for Sculpture—is a favorite visitors’ photo op. You can take a seat with the mother and child. A little hokey, but fun.

You are permitted to run your fingers over these Magdalena Abakanowicz seated figures. You definitely couldn’t do that at the Metropolitan Museum’s rooftop sculpture garden a few summers ago, when they mounted a show of her work.

New Yorkers will immediately recognize this as a piece by the “George Washington Bridge sculptor”: I’ve circled hundreds of times around another work in this style by Peter Lundberg, whenever I take the ramp from the Westside Highway to the GWB.
FROM THE DONALD M. KENDALL SCULPTURE GARDENS, PEPSICO HEADQUARTERS, PURCHASE, NY

These Giacometti “Large Standing Women” are a bit off the beaten sculpture track, close to the headquarters building, designed by Edward Durrell Stone. Don’t miss them.

Likewise, the David Smith “Cube Totem.”

Open free to the public, the Kendall Sculpture Gardens are an upscale community park where you’ll see dog walkers…

…and maybe even an Ethiopian wedding party, on their way to a photo shoot!

Me and the George Segals. Okay, I’m a bit tacky.
FROM THE STORM KING ART CENTER, MOUNTAINVILLE, NY

I was sorry I didn’t get to mention on the radio the fine temporary exhibition devoted to Louise Bourgeois, scattered among the rooms inside the house at Storm King and spilling over onto the grounds outside. Here’s one of her recent Spiders.

Here’s part of the Richard Serra that I referred to on WNYC. An earthwork by Maya Lin is now in progress, to be completed in two to three years.

Storm King is a great place to see a concentration of works by Mark di Suvero…

…and David Smith.
Now turn off that computer and go out to see these sights!