ePaper
Subscribe
Newsletters
Search
Profile
Visitor Figures
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Vermeer
Adventures with Van Gogh
Russia-Ukraine war
Subscribe
ePaper
Newsletters
Visitor Figures
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Vermeer
Adventures with Van Gogh
Russia-Ukraine war
Sanford Biggers
news

Sanford Biggers unveils monolithic sculpture at Rockefeller Plaza

The work is part of a campus-wide exhibition exploring themes around European and African mythologies

Gabriella Angeleti
5 May 2021
Share
Sanford Biggers, Oracle (2020) at Rockefeller Center Photo: Daniel Greer. Courtesy of Art Production Fund

Sanford Biggers, Oracle (2020) at Rockefeller Center Photo: Daniel Greer. Courtesy of Art Production Fund

A monumental bronze sculpture by the Harlem-based artist Sanford Biggers was unveiled this morning at Rockefeller Center. The work Oracle (2020) continues the artist’s recent Chimera series of sculptures, which combine elements of African and ancient Greco-Roman sculpture to reference historical revisionism and the “white washing” of Classical sculptures that were once polychromatic, and the ways in which European nationalism influenced the aesthetic standard of the 20th century.

According to Biggers, the imposing 25 ft-tall sculpture fuses elements from various mythologies, including the ancient Temple of Zeus, the Luba sculpture tradition and elements of the Maasai religion. “The entire installation is based on mythology, narrative and mystery,” Biggers says. “Rockefeller Center itself, as an architectural entity, is very much steeped in mythology and mystery.”

The campus-wide exhibition, which has been organised by the Art Production Fund and Marianne Boesky, was slated to open last September but was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. It also includes an expansive mural, flagpole designs, marble sculptures and video works displayed inside Rockefeller Center and on vitrines around the area. The works will be on view until 29 June, and there are plans to tour the centrepiece sculpture in the future. 

The presentation follows the artist’s retrospective Codeswitch at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, in which Biggers presented a series of sculptural works made from vintage quilts that represented the codex of hidden maps and messages that led enslaved Black people to free states. The maps created “a transgenerational conversation chronicling aspects of America”, Biggers told The Art Newspaper in a previous interview. One of the quilts from the exhibition, which closed last month, is also on view in a vitrine at Rockefeller Plaza.

Sanford BiggersPublic artArt Production FundMarianne Boesky GalleryFrieze New York
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
© The Art Newspaper