Art In The Parks - Lionel Smit

One of the reasons I like to raise my son in the city is that real art is everywhere in the city. One day my son and I were walking near Union Square park and we saw a cool sculpture. Many people were around the sculpture. It was an opening event for Lionel Smit's MORPHOUS. We met the artist who made this sculpture Lionel Smit and his father Anton Smit who is also sculptor. They are both based in South Africa. Anton was very nice and friendly to my son. He showed us his book called Retrospective to explain about his work to my 5 years old son. He has a sculpture park in South Africa. We would like to visit there one day. 

This show is part of Art in the parks. You can also find many great art in public spaces throughout the city. You can find out more from here.  I also took the description about Lionel Smit, MORPHOUS from Art in the park website. 

Lionel Smit,MORPHOUS
June 13, 2016 to April 30, 2017
Union Square Park, Manhattan

Description:

MORPHOUS is an exploration of hybrid identity and its ever-changing nature within South Africa’s social landscape. This bronze sculpture, featuring the conjoined heads of two outward-gazing young women, evokes the question of time, of past and future, and a societal commentary without judgment. The “double-vision” portrayed in this work is simultaneously a foretelling of things to come and an acknowledgement of what has already passed. The figures are charged with an emotive and gestural energy, a hallmark of Smit’s evocative work. The spontaneous gestures in his three dimensional figural forms animate the beauty and grace of the faces he sees in the neighborhoods around his studio. The scale of his work invokes both a sense of celebration and power.

私がニューヨークで子育てするのが好きな理由の一つがニューヨークの公共の場所にでも本格的なアートが展示されていて、息子がそれを間近に見れるという事があります。先日も息子とユニオンスクエア付近を歩いていると、最近新しく設置された彫刻の展示の周りに人だかりが出来ており行ってみると、彫刻を作ったアーティストLionel Smit さんがいらっしゃって、この彫刻のオープニングイベントが行われていました。そのイベントで出会ったLionel Smitさんのお父さんで、彫刻家のAnton Smithさんが、自分の彫刻の本Retrospectiveを息子に見せてくれ、そして、それらの彫刻の説明を優しく分かりやすく息子に説明してくれました。彼は、サウスアフリカに自身の彫刻を集めた公園を持っていらして、それがまた素晴らしい空間なんです。いつか息子と一緒に訪れる日を楽しみにしています。この彫刻はArt in the parkの一環で、他にもたくさんのアートがニューヨーク中の様々な公共の場所に展示されています。それらを見るためのニューヨークの散歩も楽しそうですね。アートの紹介はArt in the park websiteのウェブサイトからチェックできます。

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