Mayor's Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events Boston Art
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events Boston Art Commission 100 Public Artworks: Back Bay, Beacon Hill, the Financial District and the North End 1. Lief Eriksson by Anne Whitney This life-size bronze statue memorializes Lief Eriksson, the Norse explorer believed to be the first European to set foot on North America. Originally sited to overlook the Charles River, Eriksson stands atop a boulder and shields his eyes as if surveying unfamiliar terrain. Two bronze plaques on the sculpture’s base show Eriksson and his crew landing on a rocky shore and, later, sharing the story of their discovery. When Boston philanthropist Eben N. Horsford commissioned the statue, some people believed that Eriksson and his crew landed on the shore of Massachusetts and founded their settlement, called Vinland, here. However, most scholars now consider Vinland to be located on the Canadian coast. This piece was created by a notable Boston sculptor, Anne Whitney. Several of her pieces can be found around the city. Whitney was a fascinating and rebellious figure for her time: not only did she excel in the typically ‘masculine’ medium of large-scale sculpture, she also never married and instead lived with a female partner. 2. Ayer Mansion Mosaics by Louis Comfort Tiffany At first glance, the Ayer Mansion seems to be a typical Back Bay residence. Look more closely, though, and you can see unique elements decorating the mansion’s façade. Both inside and outside, the Ayer Mansion is ornamented with colorful mosaics and windows created by the famed interior designer Louis Comfort Tiffany. It is one of only three houses known to contain Tiffany’s interior designs in their original site. Although Tiffany is known as a quintessential American artist, he looked to many other cultures for inspiration for his work. He traveled extensively throughout Europe and North Africa and developed a particular interest in Moorish and Islamic art. The designs Tiffany would create throughout his career combine centuries-old motifs and techniques with unique innovations. For instance, Tiffany developed new methods of making glass, and he found that placing foil behind his glass mosaics would make them reflect more light and deepen their color. 3. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento by Ivette Compagnion As president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento promoted the development of public education in his country. Sarmiento was greatly influenced by the ideas of his friend Horace Mann, an educational reformer and former member of the Massachusetts Senate, whom Sarmiento met during his travels to the United States. (A statue of Mann appears later in the Walk.) To commemorate their friendship and cooperation, the Argentine government presented this work as a gift to the City of Boston in 1973. Although the figure does not feature a dramatic pose, its bronze surface is highly textured, creating a play of light and shadow upon the surface that enlivens Sarmiento’s form. With a slightly furrowed brow, he appears to be in a state of deliberation. 4. Quest Eternal by Donald De Lue Twisted in a dramatic pose, this 27-foot tall male figure reaches toward the sky. The muscular nude brings to mind ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, as well as the work of Renaissance-era artists, who often looked to classical art to inspire their choice of subject matter and style. Here, the sculpture also fits in with the modern urban landscape and parallels the bold verticality of the neighboring Prudential Tower, completed three years before the sculpture’s installation. Despite the work’s enormous size and weight of five tons, it was cast in one piece at a foundry in Italy. In contrast, many large sculptures are cast in multiple parts and then welded together. 5. Boston Women’s Memorial by Meredith Bergmann Developed by the City of Boston’s Women’s Commission with the support of First Lady Angela Menino, this memorial incorporates three bronze sculptures of important women in history. The first, Abigail Adams, served as confidant and advisor to her husband, President John Adams, and was a strong advocate of women’s rights. The second, poet Phillis Wheatley, became the first published African- American after being kidnapped from her family and enslaved as a child in Senegal and then sold as property to a couple in Massachusetts. The final figure is abolitionist and suffragist Lucy Stone, known for being the first woman to keep her own last name after marriage and one of the first American women to earn a college degree – which she personally funded. Sculptor Meredith Gang Bergmann modeled the figures in dynamic poses that invite viewer interaction. Unlike many of the large commemorative sculptures dotting Commonwealth Avenue, they are not perched upon high pedestals but instead stand at street level. By resisting the typically detached quality of commemorative sculpture, Bergmann pays a fitting tribute to these women and their revolutionary ideas. 6. Samuel Eliot Morison by Penelope Jencks Dressed in a windbreaker and simple cap and seated casually upon a rock, this bronze figure looks almost indistinguishable from any tourist visiting the Boston shore on a cloudy weekend. In fact, it is the likeness of Harvard professor Samuel Eliot Morison, the foremost American naval historian of the twentieth century. Morison won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Christopher Columbus and personally sailed several of the routes Columbus is believed to have followed. However, Morison also evoked controversy by authoring a textbook with insensitive comments about slavery. With her unpretentious depiction, sculptor Penelope Jencks downplays Morison’s roles as professor and provocateur and emphasizes his passion for the sea. 7. William Lloyd Garrison by Olin Levi Warner This sculpture honors William Lloyd Garrison, the committed abolitionist and publisher of the anti- slavery newspaper The Liberator, who was nearly lynched by a Boston mob in 1835. Fifty years later, a group of prominent citizens, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, presented this sculpture to the city. Garrison was born in Newburyport, MA and began writing critiques of slavery while working as an apprentice to a newspaper printer. As a writer, editor, and speaker, Garrison became well known for his fiery, uncompromising rhetoric, which this depiction emphasizes. The imposing figure is equipped with quills and an ink stand, and he crumples a paper in his right hand. Garrison sits upon a base inscribed with phrases from his first editorial in The Liberator: “I am in earnest,” “I will not equivocate,” “I will be heard.” 8. Vendome Fire Memorial by Ted Clausen and Peter White In 1972, a tragic fire at the Hotel Vendome claimed the lives of nine firefighters, who were killed when a section of the burning building collapsed. Erected twenty-five years later, this granite and bronze structure honors those firefighters and marks the hotel’s former location. Its unadorned, modern design focuses our attention on the absence of the deceased men, symbolized by a helmet and a jacket draped over the curved wall. The memorial’s form developed through creative dialogue between the artists and the fireman who proposed the piece. Names of the nine men and an account of the events on the day of the fire are etched into the wall, along with quotations from firefighters reflecting on their vocation. 9. Art and Science by Bela Lyon Pratt These two seated allegorical female figures—one representing Art, holding a palette and a paintbrush, and the other representing Science, holding a sphere—welcome visitors to the entrance of the Boston Public Library. The sculptures were created by Bela Lyon Pratt after his mentor Augustus Saint-Gaudens died, leaving his design for the library incomplete. Inside the building, more art awaits, including a cycle of murals by renowned American painter John Singer Sargent. 10. Henry and Paint by Deborah Butterfield These semi-abstract horse sculptures by Deborah Butterfield allude to the history of the Neiman Marcus department store. In 1907, two competing department store owners, Herbert Marcus Sr. and A. Harris, teamed up to open a new department store in Dallas. The horses evoke both the Texan landscape and the retailers’ partnership. Butterfield is especially well known for her sculptures of horses, which she has been creating since the early 1980s. 11. Kahlil Gibran Memorial by Kahlil Gibran (Godson of subject) The Lebanese-American artist, writer, and philosopher Kahlil Gibran immigrated to the United States in 1895, at the age of 12. While living in Boston, he wrote and illustrated his most famous book, The Prophet, a poetic treatise on such topics as family, religion, and death. Gibran’s relative and godson—also named Kahlil and himself a celebrated local artist—designed this memorial to honor his relative and placed it near the Boston Public Library, where the elder Gibran did much of his research and writing. The sculptor portrays his cousin as a youthful and reflective man in a pose that brings to mind depictions of philosophers and theologians throughout the centuries. Sculptures by the younger Gibran can be found in public spaces and museums throughout the country. 12. Boston Marathon Memorial by Mark Flannery, Robert Shure and Robert Lamb Situated in Copley Square, adjacent to the finish line of the Boston Marathon, this memorial celebrates the race’s 100th running. At first, the memorial might be easy to miss: instead of rising up vertically, like most of the sculptures this tour highlights, the memorial consists primarily of granite patterns set into the ground. The central medallion traces the marathon’s course from the suburb of Hopkinton to Boston’s Back Bay, and an elevation map shows off its notoriously difficult hills. Around this central medallion are inscribed the names of the marathon’s winners, including Bobbi Gibb.