Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Creative Photography #10




Photobucket

Free Form
Jose de Rivera 1964
American Abstract Expressionist Sculptor, 1904-1985

Flushing Meadow Park in Queens, NY has many public art sculptures that were placed for the New York World's Fair in 1964-65. During our visit there recently we photographed many of the public art sculptures including the Unisphere.

Few remember this, but José de Rivera's polished crescent Free Form originally revolved on top of its base (the motor conked out in 1972 and was never re-started). De Rivera (1904-1985) created his statues with his own hands, forging and hammering his materials personally. As a result, he suffered a hearing loss. Beginning as a craftsman in Chicago, he worked as a pipefitter and die caster. Many of his works are steel or bronze bands twisted into 3-dimensional shapes.

I love this crescent because it reflects the trees and earth around it. All I did to this photo is enhance the saturation.

theteach

13 comments:

Sandee said...

Not participating, but wanted to comment. It's beautiful Teach. I like it a lot. Have a great day. Big hug and lotsa lovies. :)

Daryl said...

Really nice feeling, Mary!

:-Daryl

Patti said...

It's a cool sculpture and I like the way it reflects its surroundings.

good luck in Roger's contest!

CreativeMish said...

great sculpture!

RW said...

That's awesome Mary! Now tell me how to get that in my front yard!

Anonymous said...

*smack.forehead*
I wrote a comment and it went into error..

That sculpture reminds me of the breast cancer awareness pink ribbon :)
Good luck in this week's contest!

Minkydo said...

Very pretty and interesting.

Ralph said...

Is this a stylish ellipse? Or a vertical art-deco fish? The mind wants to know!

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

there were so many cool structures made for that World's Fair...I can not count the number of times I got to go to it...

Very nice Mary

good luck this week

Dianne said...

I see the reflection! Warm earth colors in the steel.

beautiful Mary

Anonymous said...

Very nice job!

Linda said...

I really like this shot, that's quite the amazing sculpture and I love how the light reflects off of it.

Good luck this week!

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
As Jose de Rivera's great granddaughter, I can tell you that the man was even more amazing than the art work-such a brilliant mind. I know this is an old post, but thank you for sharing this! As to an earlier comment, Jose's son did display such constructions on his property in Chicago-made for great conversation in the community :-).

Nicki