New Frontiers: Rockefeller Center and Sculpture
About the Program:
Rockefeller Center remains an undeniably vibrant location in the City of New York, not just because of tourism, or its famed holiday tree, but also because of the comings and goings of people employed at or near the complex. We can attribute the vitality of the Center to the streamlined urban planning, architectural design, and program of artwork established in the 1930s that set it apart from the cityscape that surrounds it.
The diverse artworks at the Center which form the thematic program known as “New Frontiers,” virtually embody the threshold between the classical training that Rockefeller Center’s artists and architects underwent prior to the Great Depression and their adaptation of progressive ideas expressed in the soaring skyscrapers of the complex in the 1930s. This mix is fundamental to design and artwork of the Art Deco era.
Sculpture can be found on almost all of the twelve original buildings in the complex. Through it we can start to understand some of the major themes and techniques the project’s designers and artists employed in establishing the success of the Center as an urban experience. An integral component of pre-war architecture, the use of architectural sculpture changed radically from its exuberant application in the 1925 Paris Exposition both before and especially after the Great Depression. New ways of conceiving architectural sculpture did much to enhance the exciting urban experience at Rockefeller Center.
With a nod to Valerie Clarebout’s angels to acknowledge the holiday season, we’ll learn about the strategies Rockefeller Center’s architects used for integrating sculpture into the fabric of the complex: classic techniques to frame Rene Paul Chambellan’s Fountainhead Figures in perspective; integrate Lee Lawrie’s The Story of Mankind into the limestone surface of the International Building; juxtapose Isamu Noguchi’s News against the flat planes of Rockefeller Plaza. Yet they also introduced the rhythm, stylization and experimentation of Jazz Age design: the staccato patterns of Lawrie’s Wisdom; the stylization of Hildreth Meiere’s Dance, Drama, and Song; the experimental materials in Attilio Piccirilli’s Youth Leading Industry. “New Frontiers” at Rockefeller Center helps us understand the hybrid world of Art Deco design at its most impactful.
This recorded Video Event includes the original PowerPoint––with wonderful images that you will be able to see directly on your computer screen, tablet, or mobile device.
About the Speaker:
Anthony Pellino is a New York State Certified Interior Designer. He is NCIDQ Certified and an ASID Professional. He practices interior design in New York City with a specialty in furniture design. He holds a BFA in Environmental Design from Parsons and a Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University. In addition to design and teaching, he creates public programming in historic architecture and design for the National Historic Landmark Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, NY. With his City Moderne project he is exploring Building Information Modeling software and the tenets of Art Deco design for their effects on the contemporary city.
Registration:
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