The Sphere
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Sphere for Plaza Fountain, also known as "Koenig Sphere" or popularly known as "The Sphere" is a bronze sculpture by the German sculptor Fritz Koenig (1924–2017) in the Manhattan district of New York . Originally named “Large Ball Caryatid ”, it is a globe made of 52 bronze segments on a steel frame. The sculpture was erected in the Austin Tobin Plaza between the towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in the early 1970s and was dedicated to " world peace through trade".
The sculpture has been in Liberty Park near its original location since September 2017 .
Emergence
Henry Moore was actually supposed to make a sculpture for the World Trade Center, but after its architect Minoru Yamasaki had seen the work of Fritz Koenig in the Staempfli Gallery in New York, the client of the WTC commissioned the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey , the German sculptor. The sculpture was built from 1967 to 1971 in Ganslberg near Landshut . It was finally assembled in Bremen . The largest bronze sculpture of modern times originally weighed over two tons, was 7.60 m high and had a diameter of 4.60 m. It turned once on its axis within 24 hours. It crowned the Plaza Fountain in the center of the WTC complex and was a popular meeting place for New Yorkers. The original name "Large Ball Caryatid" did not catch on with the New Yorkers. They called the spherical sculpture "Koenig Sphere" or simply "The Sphere" (the sphere).
Damaged on September 11, 2001
Surprisingly, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 did not completely destroy the sculpture, but rather remained in its entirety between the collapsed towers of the World Trade Center, albeit badly damaged. It was then dismantled and stored near the John F. Kennedy Airport .
On March 11, 2002, six months after the attacks, the sculpture was re-erected in Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan.
Realignment 2017
In September 2017, the sculpture was erected as a memorial for the attacks around one kilometer south of the original location in Liberty Park, which is directly adjacent to the memorial for the attacks of September 11, 2001.
With the damage caused by the attacks, the gold shimmering work of art is now a memorial and is also referred to by the New Yorkers as “9/11” (“nine eleven”).
There is a model of "The Sphere" in the entrance area of the new One World Trade Center . A model of the sculpture donated by Koenig can also be seen in the memorial museum.
documentary
The German director Percy Adlon shows in his documentary "Koenigs Kugel - the German sculptor Fritz Koenig in the rubble of Ground Zero" (English title "Koenig's Sphere") from 2001/2002 the re-encounter of Koenig with his badly damaged work of art a few months after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the installation as a memorial. In it, the artist remembers the origin of the ball caryatid and speaks about transience and the transformation of art in the face of this human tragedy: “It was a sculpture, now it's a memorial. Now she has a different beauty, one that I could never imagine. She now has her own life - different from the one I gave her. "
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b David W. Dunlap: Koenig Sphere Moving to WTC Liberty Park, Port Authority Says. In: The New York Times. July 21, 2016, accessed February 23, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Fritz Koenig is dead. Landshut mourns the loss of world-famous sculptors. In: BR24. February 23, 2017, archived from the original on February 19, 2018 ; accessed on February 23, 2017 .
- ^ Andrian Kreye: New on Ground Zero . In: sueddeutsche.de . September 4, 2017, ISSN 0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed September 6, 2017]).
- ^ Andrian Kreye: New on Ground Zero . In: sueddeutsche.de . September 4, 2017, ISSN 0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed September 6, 2017]).
- ^ Fritz Koenigs Kugel - The Sculptor and September 11th
Coordinates: 40 ° 42 ′ 14.86 " N , 74 ° 0 ′ 54.84" W.