Radio interview on outdoor monuments

I was recently interviewed by Adam Schwartz for WFIU, a public radio station at the University of Indiana, Bloomington. We talked for an hour and a half about outdoor sculptures, abstract art, the World Trade Center memorial, and much more. It was a pleasure talking about such things with someone who asked such intelligent questions. Adam did a great job of boiling the interview down to 6 minutes, which is all the format of the program allows. Have a listen:

http://indianapublicmedia.org/arts/arts-writer-dianne-durante-sculptures-forgotten-delights/

Apthorp and Heckscher Buildings

Above: top of the entranceway to the Apthorp Apartments, which occupy the full city block between West End Avenue and Broadway, and 78th and 79th Streets. Beyond the barrel-vaulted tunnels with their enormous wrought-iron gates is a spacious courtyard with a fountain. The Apthorp was built 1906-1908 by Clinton & Russell on land owned by the Astors.

Below: originally the Heckscher, now the Crown Building, 730 Fifth Ave. (southwest corner 57th St.); designed by Warren & Wetmore (architects of Grand Central Terminal), completed 1921. There is something about this shade of green combined with gold that I find very pleasing: associations with money, perhaps? This was one of the earliest buildings constructed after the City's 1916 Zoning Resolution restricted the height and shape of buildings. Augustus Heckscher Sr. (1848-1941) made his fortune in mining and real-estate ventures and donated the much of it to philanthropic endeavors, including the Heckscher Museum on Long Island and the Heckscher Foundation for Children (now El Museo del Barrio). The largest playground in Central Park and the only one included in the original Greensward Plan also bears the Heckscher name.

Memorial Day: Washington at Union Square, Bethesda Terrace, Irises

Top: Brown's Washington at Union Square (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan, Essay 13) - finally, a good shot of the west side, taken on a cloudy day (no harsh shadows) and with a long enough zoom that I could back up so his arm doesn't cover his face.

Middle: Balustrades and arches at Central Park's Bethesda Terrace. The detail and the variation always amazes me.

Bottom: Irises from someone else's garden. (If I had a green thumb, it would be made out of patinated copper.)

Manhattan Sculpture Quiz, part 2

How much do you know about Manhattan's sculptures and the people they represent? Click here for answers to the quiz. The questions are based on material in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide, Forgotten Delights: The Producers, and on material on http://www.forgottendelights.com/ . Questions 1-9 are in the previous blog entry. 10. Who are the three figures above the clock on the south façade of Grand Central Terminal?

A. Zeus, Athena, Hermes B. Hercules, Hermes, Athena C. Poseidon, Hermes, Venus D. Hercules, Hermes, Hera

11. Which sculpture was picketed on the grounds that it looked like Benito Mussolini?

A. Prometheus B. Edwin Booth C. Fiorello La Guardia D. Atlas

12. Which equestrian statue in Manhattan shows a rider in civilian clothes?

A. Jose Marti B. El Cid Campeador C. Washington at Union Square D. Joan of Arc

13. When did Shakespeare become high-brow entertainment in America?

A. Around the time of the Revolutionary War B. Around the time of the Civil War C. Around the time of the Spanish-American War D. Around the time of World War II

14. Which two figures are among the four figures represented on the base of the Verdi Monument?

A. Leonora and Falstaff B. Aida and Violetta C. Leonora and Macbeth D. Rigoletto and Otello

15. Which of the following is one of the four figures that appear above Theodore Roosevelt on the east façade of the American Museum of Natural History?

A. Zebulon Pike B. Sacajawea C. Daniel Boone D. Henry Hudson

16. Which Danish sculptor has a self-portrait in Central Park?

A. Karl Bitter B. Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen C. Wilhelm Freddie D. Claes Oldenburg

17. In what Manhattan park is there a statue of a bear attacking a faun who cowers in a grotto?

A. Morningside Park B. Central Park C. Riverside Park D. Inwood Hill Park

18. Who among the following has the most separate portrait sculptures outdoors in Manhattan?

A. Thomas Jefferson B. Alexander Hamilton C. Abraham Lincoln D. Christopher Columbus

Click here for answers to the quiz, here for questions 1-9.

Manhattan Sculpture Quiz, part 1

How much do you know about Manhattan's sculptures and the people they represent? Click here for answers to the quiz. The questions are based on material in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide, Forgotten Delights: The Producers, and on material on http://www.forgottendelights.com . Questions 10-18 follow in the next blog entry. 1. Which of the works below is NOT a memorial to someone who died on the Titanic?

A. Straus Memorial B. Stead Memorial C. Brisbane Memorial D. Titanic Memorial Lighthouse

2. Which of the following four are represented in Daniel Chester French's sculptures in front of the Customs House at Bowling Green?

A. Africa, America, Australia, Asia B. Africa, Europe, Asia, Antarctica C. Africa, Asia, Europe, England D. Africa, Asia, Europe, America

3. Which explorer was being honored city-wide in 1909, the year the Battery Park memorial to Giovanni da Verrazzano was dedicated?

A. Jacques Cartier B. Christopher Columbus C. John Cabot D. Henry Hudson

4. What allegorical figure stands at the center of the New York Stock Exchange pediment?

A. Integrity B. Justice C. Truth D. Wealth

5. Who used "The Sidewalks of New York" as a campaign song?

A. John F. Kennedy B. Theodore Roosevelt C. Alfred E. Smith D. Fiorello La Guardia

6. Who invented flavored gelatin (Jell-o)?

A. Peter Cooper B. Pietro Delmonico C. Abram S. Hewitt D. Thomas Nast

7. Name the noted New York politician who died of an illness brought on by the Blizzard of 1888, and was eulogized for his "eloquence and learning, his undaunted devotion to truth, his purity and courage, his uncompromising patriotism, his scorn of cant and deception" - but also condemned by his biographer as "one of the harshest, strictest, most narrow-minded of all political bosses. Possibly like Pooh Bah he was born sneering."

A. Roscoe Conkling B. Fiorello La Guardia C. Fernando Wood D. Chester A. Arthur

8. In "Full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes!", what were the torpedoes?

A. Artillery shells B. Self-propelled underwater projectiles C. Floating barrels filled with gunpowder D. Pipe bombs

9. Who wrote the poem "Thanatopsis," which begins, "To him who, in the love of Nature, holds / Communion with her visible forms, she speaks / A various language"?

A. William Wadsworth Longfellow B. William Blake C. William Cullen Bryant D. William Shakespeare

Click here for answers to the quiz.

Marketing Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan

Publishers these days don't run to three-martini lunches and author tours - at least not for a first-time author who writes about New York and already lives there - so as the release date of Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan approaches I'm spending a fair amount of time thinking about marketing. This is far, far from my fields of expertise, so I make it a game.

Who do I know who's most likely to talk about the book to a lot of people if given a pre-publication copy? Make a list, and ask NYU Press to send galleys.

What periodicals and newspapers are most likely to publish reviews or mention the book? Keep a running list, ask NYU Press to let me know who they're sending review copies to, and suggest additions.

NYU Press will produce postcards and some printed material. What promo pieces can I produce inexpensively? "Moo cards" (http://www.moo.com/ ) are extremely cute, but too small for any practical use. Instead, I designed print-at-home business cards with the book's cover on them, in hopes people will remember the image well enough to stop, look, and pick up the book if they see it in a bookstore.

This week's project was designing a promo piece to offer as a prize to the first five people who write good reviews for Amazon. I decided on a tote bag rather than a mug or mousepad, because the tote would presumably be carried around rather than sitting on a desk. But the minimum order for silk-screened tote bags is dozens, which would cost far more than I should spend. If I order only 5, the cost shoots up to $25 each. Youch. The solution: using Avery T-shirt transfer paper to copy the book's cover to a piece of fabric, which I can then sew as a pocket onto a mass-produced plain-color tote. That brings the cost of the totes down to $9 or so each, which I can afford as long as I only produce 5 of them.

Why Dianne blogs

In February 2007 New York University Press will issue Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide, on 54 of Manhattan's best outdoor representational sculptures. I conceived OMOM as a guidebook for New Yorkers and tourists, but it evolved into a discussion of historical and esthetic issues that fascinate me, and I hope will fascinate you as well. For the next two months (through February 2007) I plan to post a paragraph or two every day about one of the OMOM essays: what's covered in "About the Sculpture" and "About the Subject," why I chose those particular topics, what I found most surprising when doing the research, and/or what I most regretted deleting. Eventually (in March?) I'll upload out-takes, bibliographical references, and intriguing snippets of research that never even made it into an early draft.

Since 2002 I've been running the website http://www.forgottendelights.com/, which offers comments on dozens of outdoor representational sculptures in New York. (It gets from 50,000 to 80,000 hits per month, so someone out there is interested.) The Forgotten Delights site was set up to promote my self-published book Forgotten Delights: The Producers. If you've read FDP, you'll find the format of Outdoor Monuments familiar:

• Introductory section with title, artist, date, size, medium, location


• Photograph of the sculpture


• Sidebar (a substantial quote, often by the person represented or from a contemporary source, sometimes from a poem or novel)


• About the Sculpture (on the sculpture as art)


• About the Subject (on the person or event represented)

Outdoor Monuments has better photos than FDP, a more professional layout and binding, and of course it covers 54 items rather than the 19 in FDP. For anyone interested in learning to look at sculpture with an informed and inquisitive eye, OMOM's Appendix A, "How to Read a Sculpture," will be worth the book's purchase price, since it sets out a systematic method for looking at a sculpture.

ISBN 987-0-8147-1987-9. Release date: February 2007. $18.95 paperback, $60.00 cloth. 300 pages. Available from New York University Press and Amazon.