While wandering around Harlem a couple months ago, I noticed a strangely familiar statue perched above a door on the beautiful Gothic campus of the City University of New York (CUNY) (the building it’s on is a not-quite-so-beautiful modern structure). It turns out this same sculpture has been sitting for years on Louisville’s very own Fourth Street very near Cunningham’s Restaurant.
The New York version is significantly larger than Louisville’s but is otherwise pretty much identical. I know there’s a plaque underneath the Louisville statue, but I’m running off archived photos here, so I don’t have a readable copy. Anyone want to stop by and check out the specifics? Or does anyone know why the same statue is in two cities?
Founder and Editor at Broken Sidewalk
Branden founded Broken Sidewalk in 2008 while practicing architecture in Louisville. He continued the site for seven years while living in New York City, returning to Louisville in 2016. Branden is a graduate of the College of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, and has covered architecture, design, and urbanism for The Architect's Newspaper, Designers & Books, Inhabitat, and the American Institute of Architects.
Latest posts by Branden Klayko (see all)
Boy you've got a great eye! It is entitled "Happy Children" by Chaim Gross donated to the River City Mall by Mr. and Mrs. Barry Bingham Sr. No date…
The one that is in the National Gallery of Art is dated 1982. There are pictures of him working in his studio on an identical plaster dating to 1978. The first was done in 1968, which seems to be the one that is now at CUNY (which was restored in 2002)