New York City's 843-acre (3.41 km2) Central Park is the home of many works of public art in various media, such as bronze, stone, and tile. Many are sculptures in the form of busts, statues, equestrian statues, and panels carved or cast in low relief. Others are two-dimensional bronze or tile plaques. Some artworks do double-duty as fountains, or as part of fountains; some serve as memorials dedicated to a cause, to notable individuals, and in one case, to a notable animal. Most were donated by individuals or civic organizations; only a few were funded by the city.
Examples of public art in the park include memorials dedicated to notable individuals such as the poet William Shakespeare and the statesman Daniel Webster; depictions of archetypical characters such as The Pilgrim, Indian Hunter, and The Falconer; depictions of literary characters such as Alice in Wonderland; numerous depictions of imaginary animals, and at least one of a real one (the statue of Balto). The only artifact from the ancient world is the Egyptian obelisk known as "Cleopatra's Needle", the oldest and tallest artwork in the park.
Traditionally, depictions of real (as opposed to imaginary) humans were men, whereas depictions of women have been either mythological characters (angels or goddesses) or characters from literature. The installation in 2020 of the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument, depicting three female activists, was a first step in addressing this oversight.
In recent years, park administrators have provided a forum for temporary exhibitions of artwork at the Doris Freedman Plaza, just outside the park's southeast entrance.
A bronze statue depicting the Danish fairytale author Hans Christian Andersen, seated on a Stony Creek granite bench, feeding a duck (his most notable work being The Ugly Duckling). Funded with contributions from Danish and American schoolchildren.[3]
A bronze statue mounted on natural rock, portraying one of over 200 sled-dogs that delivered diphtheria serum through a blizzard to Nome, Alaska in January 1925. Balto attended the dedication of his statue (a rarity among Central Park statuary subjects) and died in 1933.[5]
Unveiled in 1873; Emma Stebbins, sculptor of the angel & four cherubs; Royal Foundry (Munich, Germany); Jacob Wrey Mould, designer of architectural ornament; Calvert Vaux, architect.
A bronze statue known as the Angel of the Waters atop a reeded bronze basin, supported by four cherubs atop a polychrome stone basin, which in turn sits in a 90 foot diameter basin. Emma Stebbins is said to have been the first woman to receive a public sculptural commission in New York City.
A bronze equestrian statue atop a polished black granite plinth, originally sited between 82nd and 83rd Streets overlooking Central Park West. In 1951, after Sixth Avenue was renamed Avenue of the Americas, the sculpture was relocated adjacent fellow Latin American revolutionary leaders José de San Martín and José Martí.
A bronze sculpture atop a pink granite plinth sitting in a small basin, created in memory of children's author Frances Hodgson Burnett. The work illustrates Mary and Dickon, characters from her bookThe Secret Garden (1910).
Installed in 1928; Georg J. Lober, sculptor; Otto Frederick Langman, architect.
An iron flagstaff supported by a bronze mounting embellished with four medallions and four eagles, sitting atop a Deer Isle granite pedestal with inscriptions. The memorial is dedicated to city employees who are, or were, veterans of American wars. Lober and Langman collaborated on the statue of George M. Cohan, installed at Duffy Square in 1959.
A bronze statue atop a Rockport granite plinth. Cast in Barcelona in 1892, the statue was donated to Central Park by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The statue replicates one made by Jeronimo Suñol in 1886, now in Madrid.[6] The New York version was placed in the park in 1894 at the foot of the Mall.
An encaustic tile panel depicting fish and fowl, the name of the building and the date of its construction. A chevron band symbolizes the water of Harlem Meer which the building overlooks.
Dedicated in 2011; Gabriel Koren, sculptor; Algernon Miller and Quennell Rothschild & Partners, plaza and fountain design; Polich-Tallix, foundry.
A larger-than-life bronze statue on a bronze base on a granite platform, set in the middle of a memorial plaza dedicated to Douglass, a 19th-century abolitionist, activist, and author.
Drew was a silent movie actor/director who died in World War I. The American Legion planted an oak tree in his memory in 1920, and installed the marker in 1928.
A bronze sculpture on a Quincy granite pedestal depicting a goat captured by two eagles. Said to be the earliest sculpture installed in a New York City park.
A bronze sculpture depicting three bears, on a bronze base atop a granite step-stone, first cast in 1932 for the Bronx Zoo. This version was cast in 1989.
Commissioned in 1896; dedicated on October 31, 1898; allegorical figures added 1901.[14]Daniel Chester French, sculptor; Bruce Price, architect; Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co., foundry.
A bronze bust of the architect in a granite exedra with marble columns. Two bronze allegorical statues represent (right) Architecture and (left) Painting and Sculpture.
Cast in 1866; dedicated in 1869. John Quincy Adams Ward, sculptor; L. A. Amouroux, foundry.
A bronze sculpture of a Native American man and his dog, atop a granite pedestal — the first work of an American sculptor to be installed in Central Park.
Modeled in 1908–09; cast in 1939; Stanislaw Kazimierz Ostrowski, sculptor. Installed in Central Park in 1945; Aymar Embury II, architect.
A bronze equestrian statue of a Polish king, set atop a granite pedestal, cast for the Polish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, and said to be the largest sculpture in Central Park.
A bronze sculptural fantasia depicting children and animals set atop three Swensons green granite piers. Three bronze commemorative plaques are mounted on the piers.
Adolph A. Weinman, sculptor; Thomas Hastings, architect; Donn Barber, architect. Proposed in 1918; commissioned in 1921; dedicated November 14, 1928; bust repaired in 1966.
A gilded bronze bust, mounted on a black slate panel, set within a North Jay granite aedicula. Mitchel was the youngest mayor in New York City history, serving from 1914 to 1917. After losing re-election, and after America entered World War I, he enlisted the US Army aviation service but died in a training accident in Louisiana.
A granite sculpture, portraying the famous story-book character atop a flying goose, with bas relief panels illustrating Humpty Dumpty and Old King Cole, among others.
Bronze gates embellished with plants and animals, mounted onto Minnesota Mahogany granite piers. Two sculptures, one of bears, the other of elk, mounted on Cold Spring granite bases, sit atop each pier. The gates were dedicated to Osborn, a civic leader and 8th president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Karl Bitter, sculptor of Pomona; Thomas Hastings, architect of the fountain and plaza; Karl Gruppe, sculptor; Orazio Piccirilli, sculptor (horns of plenty); Isidore Konti, carver of final model. Commissioned in 1898; dedicated in 1916.
Following Bitter's death in 1915, Gruppe and Konti completed the statue of Pomona.
Original dedicated in Buenos Aires in 1862; Louis Joseph Daumas, sculptor. This version dedicated in 1951; Clarke, Rapuano & Holleran, architect of pedestal.
A bronze sculpture atop a black granite pedestal, a copy of Louis Joseph Daumas's 1862 sculpture.
Proposed in 1864, the 300th anniversary of the poet's birth; commissioned in 1870; cast in 1871; dedicated in 1872. John Quincy Adams Ward, sculptor; Robert Wood & Company, foundry; Jacob Wrey Mould, architect of base; Henry Parry, carver of base.
Commissioned in 1892; dedicated on May 30, 1903; gilded in 1903; Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor; A. Phimister Proctor, sculptor (horse); Charles Follen McKim, architect of pedestal; Norcross Brothers, contractor; gilded in 1903; relocated fifteen feet west in 1913; regilded in 1989 and 2013.
George Frampton, sculptor; Thomas Hastings, architect; original dedicated in London in 1913; this second version dedicated in 1920.
A bronze plaque mounted on Indiana limestone, a copy of the 1913 Stead Memorial in London. Stead was a British journalist who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
Dedicated in 1985; designed by Bruce R. Kelly, landscape architect.
A five-acre landscape designed as a memorial to John Lennon, the member of the musical group The Beatles. The memorial's centerpiece "Imagine" mosaic was created by masons in Naples, Italy, who donated it to Central Park.
Sundial
Shakespeare Garden.
Installed in 1945; Walter Beretta, sculptor.
A bronze sundial mounted on a cast-stone pedestal.
Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen, sculptor; Lauritz Rasmussen, Copenhagen, foundry. Cast in 1892; dedicated in 1894.
A bronze copy after the Danish sculptor's 1839 marble self-portrait (Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen). Commissioned by the United Danes, Norwegians and Swedes of New York and Brooklyn to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Thorvaldsen's death, it is the only statue of an artist displayed in any New York City park.
One of three castings donated by the family of Samuel Untermyer. The first cast was made in Germany about 1910 and won a Gold Medal at the Brussels World's Fair. Subsequently, two more full-size casts were made, including this one.[17]
Designed by George B. Post, architect; fabricator unknown.
One of a pair of 16 foot-tall gates that once opened into the entrance court of the Cornelius Vanderbilt II residence. Fabricated in Paris of wrought iron with cast bronze scrollwork and ornamentation. Installed on 58th Street at Fifth Avenue in 1893; removed and stored in 1928; installation in Central Park completed on May 13, 1939.
Thomas Ball, sculptor; statue cast in Munich in 1876; dedicated in 1876.
A larger-than-life bronze statue on a Quincy granite pedestal depicting a 19th-century American statesman, donated to the city in 1876 by Gordon W. Burnham. The plinth is inscribed with some of Webster's famous quotes: LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE. [18]
Installed in 1884; R. de la Cora [sic. Rafael de la Cova], sculptor.
The statue was removed by the 1890s. A proposed replacement by Giovanni Turini, to be placed on the same base, was rejected in 1897.[22] The current statue, by Sally James Farnham, was installed in 1921.
Olin Levi Warner, sculptor; Unknown carver. Dedicated in 1891 (Union Square) Moved to Central Park ca 1898; destroyed in 1953.
The marble drinking fountain was first installed in Union Square, where it was vandalized. It was moved to Central Park about 1898, but deteriorated, and was removed in 1953.[27]
Ferdinand von Miller II, sculptor; Aymar Embury II, architect. Cast in 1892; dedicated in 1894; removed in 2018.
Sims used enslaved women for his gynecological research. The memorial became controversial in the 2000s when this became widely publicized. The statue was removed on April 17, 2018, and will be relocated to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, where Sims is buried.[28]
Theodor Kalide, sculptor; original 1834 (Germany); donated in 1863.
Kalide's Boy with Swan was placed in the Charlottenburg Palace Gardens in Berlin in 1849.[29] 1863 Annual Report: "Feb. 28. One Bronze Fountain—Boy and Swan—presented by Thomas Richardson, Esq."[30]
Temporary installations of public art
Name
Location / GPS Coordinates
Dates & Designers
Notes
Volatile Presence Valley Marker Interrupted Messenger Measured Presence
The Piper Seneca would slowly rotate head-over-tail. YouTube video. The sculpture was scheduled to be exhibited until August 26, but mechanical problems caused it to be removed in July.[32]
^Susanne Stephens. “Snack stand for Central Park Ball Field,” The New York Times, July 12, 1990, Section C, page 3. According to the article, the frieze was designed by William Braham, an architect at Buttrick White & Burtis, and fabricated by Brenda Bertin.
^"Balto, (sculpture)". Shahbaz Akhtar. Save Outdoor Sculpture, New York, New York survey. 1993. Retrieved February 7, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Central Park's version of the sculpture is signed "J. SUÑOL"; it bears the foundry mark of Federico Masriera, Barcelona, 1892.
^Arcidi, Philip (December 1993). "Learning by the Rules"(PDF). Progressive Architecture. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
^"The Arts and Crafts in Architecture Today," Classicist No. 3 (1996–97): 90–96. According to the article, the plaque was designed by Michael Dwyer, an architect at Buttrick White & Burtis, and fabricated by Brenda Bertin.
^Arcidi, Philip (December 1993). "Learning by the Rules"(PDF). Progressive Architecture. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
^Andreas W. Daum, "Nation, Naturforschung und Monument: Humboldt-Denkmäler in Deutschland und den USA" [Humboldt monuments in Germany and the US]. Die Kunst der Geschichte: Historiographie, Ästhetik, Erzählung, ed. Martin Baumeister et al. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009, 113‒15.
^Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park for the Year Ending with December 31, 1863. New York. Wm. C. Bryant & Co. 1864. page 56.[3]
Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide Essays on the Sherman Monument, Simón Bolívar, José Martí, Maine Monument, Columbus Monument, Columbus by Sunol, Shakespeare, Richard Morris Hunt Memorial, King Jagiello, Alexander Hamilton
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