QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, November 16, 2023 Page 26 For the latest news EDITION visit qchron.com 45TH ANNIVERSARY • 2023
45th Anniversary Edition
The many monuments of FMCP
Some of the park’s relics are better known than others by Sophie Krichevsky
time of the 1964 World’s Fair, where several rocket ships are still displayed. Space exploration being en vogue Flushing Meadows Corona Park’s most famous monument is, without at the time, and the nation embarkquestion, the Unisphere, to the ing on President Kennedy’s mission to get to the moon, the final frontier extent that it has become practically was a key theme at the 1964 World’s synonymous with the park itself. But Gilmore Clarke’s prized work Fair. Its works of art were no is just one of a number of monu- exception. In addition to “Forms in Transit,” ments throughout the park, each that also included “Rocket Thrower.” with a deep history of its own. De Lue’s piece stands at a whopping According to Jonathan Kuhn, director of arts and antiquities for 42.5 feet tall, and according to Kuhn, is the tallest sculpture in the the Department of Parks and Recreation, the vast majority of Flushing city limits (he was sure to note that Meadows Corona Park’s 21 monu- the Statue of Liberty, though taller, ments are related to either the 1939 is in New York Harbor). The sculpor 1964 World’s Fair, though more of ture shows a larger-than-life figure them to the latter. While some of who is — as the name would suggest those works of art were meant to last — throwing a rocket into the sky. Its only the duration of the fair, Kuhn location in the park in the Court of said, others were commissioned with Astronauts, with the Fountain of the the intention that they would remain Planets separating it from the Unisphere, again reinforces that space in the park permanently. The latter includes Theodore theme. According to Kuhn, the statRoszak’s “Forms in Transit,” Jose de ue was restored in 2013 to see to Rivera’s “Free Form,” Marshall some stability concerns, and the Fredericks’ “Freedom of the Human bronze surface is waxed every three Spirit,” Donald De Lue’s “Rocket to four years. “Freedom of the Human Spirit” Thrower” and Paul Manship’s depicts male and female nude fig“Armillary Sphere.” “Forms in Transit” depicts a rock- ures with wild swans soaring into the air. The 28-foot-tall sculpture et ship coming back to Earth, passing through the hot layers of the was originally placed in what was atmosphere. According to Kuhn, called the Court of States, but Kuhn said it was moved as a result of the parts of the surface of the sculpture appear to be blistered so as to give redesign of the United States Tennis Center in 1996. Now, it sits near the the effect of soaring through the atmosphere. On the grounds of what Unisphere. “Free Form” is, by far, the most is now the New York Hall of Science, “Forms in Transit” is in Rock- abstract of the five commissioned et Park, known as Space Park at the works. A stainless steel arc on a Associate Editor
While the Unisphere is the most well-known relic of the 1964 World’s Fair, it is the first among many scattered FILE PHOTO throughout Flushing Meadows Corona Park. granite base, the sculpture — also known as “Form,” Kuhn said — contains a motor inside that allows it to slowly rotate. De Rivera was “a pretty significant modernist who was interested in sort of spatial relationships between sculpture and its environment,” Kuhn said. “There’s no one side that you look at that piece from that’s meant to be seen in the round — it’s almost like a gesture into the air.” De Rivera also contributed to the 1939 World’s Fair with an installation of three rows of stainless steel
Donald De Lue’s “Rocket Thrower,” at left, was one of five monuments commissioned for the 1964 World’s Fair that was intended to outlast the festival itself. The New Amsterdam Entrance to the park, at right, features the names of FILE PHOTO, LEFT, AND NYC PARKS PHOTO all the heads of state who attended the two World’s Fairs in New York.
flags; that did not stay at FMCP around 2007, leaving his department to pick up the pieces — literally. after the fair. Though Manship’s “Armillary “We were able to recover this piece Sphere” was intended to be at the of stone that was sheared off,” he park permanently, it did not remain explained. “We were able to sort of that way: In the 1970s, eight of the epoxy it back in and repaired it with spherical sculpture’s 12 pieces fea- mortar dust and rebuilt that section.” That took a few weeks for Kuhn’s turing the zodiac signs were stolen. The remaining pieces of the sculp- team to do. Another World’s Fair-related relic ture were stolen in 1980. While two of them were found in 1990, and is the Police World’s Fair plaque, which is outside the Queens MuseKuhn said another was later on, the remaining nine have never been um. The plaque honors NYPD Dets. Joseph Lynch and Ferdinand Socha, recovered. Many of the notable sculptures who, as part of the Bomb and Forgstill in FMCP can be seen on sea- ery Squad, were tasked with defusing a bomb at the British sonal tours led by the Pavilion in 1940; they Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, THE PARK’S were killed when the device went off. which will start up again PAST Though it is not affilinext year. ated with either of the Some monuments in World’s Fairs, Kuhn also the park were not built highlighted “Soul in for either the 1939 or Flight,” the monument 1964 World’s Fairs, but commemorate them in some way. dedicated to legendary tennis player Arthur Ashe outside the tennis cenThe Henry Hudson Entrance, located at 111th Street and 56th Avenue, ter. Despite being cast in 2000 — is one such example, and has two years after the 1964 World’s Fair — pillars, one of which is engraved Kuhn said it fits in well with many with the years the World’s Fair has of those commissioned at the time. been held at Flushing Meadows “It’s certainly not a literal representation of Arthur Ashe ... there’s no Corona Park. The New Amsterdam Entrance, which is along Shea Road, tennis racquet. It is in the gesture of a serve, but’s more that he’s holding north of the tennis center, also has two pillars, and one is engraved with his arm aloft,” Kuhn said. “It’s sort the names of the heads of state who of analogous to the pieces I’ve been visited the World’s Fairs. Kuhn said describing ... It’s the notion of that pillar was hit by a bus sometime stretching outward, of aspiration.” Q
