Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Urs Fischer's Giant Yellow Teddy Bear Sculpture Being Assembled At Seagram Building Plaza On Park Avenue

Untitled (Lamp/Bear), 2005-6. Cast bronze, epoxy primer, urethane paint, acrylic polyurethane topcoat, acrylic glass, gas discharge lamp, stainless-steel framework, 275 5/8 x 255 7/8 x 295 1/4 in.
Christie's is currently setting up a yellow 20-ton bronze teddy bear in a Park Avenue plaza outside of the Seagram Building. It was created by New York-based Swiss artist, Urs Fischer, and is getting auctioned off at Christie's next month. The 23-foot-tall yellow bear which has button eyes, is called "Untitled (Lamp/Bear)." The bear leans against a desk lamp which will be lit at night beginning Friday. According to Christie's, the sculpture had been inspired by Fischer's own much-loved teddy bear. Fischer sewed together a one-foot tall teddy bear and scanned it with a 3-D laser to generate drawings to create the sculpture. The piece is the largest of 3 editions created in 2005. The assembly of the giant sculpture will be completed on Friday, April 8. The Seagram Building is located at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets in midtown Manhattan. 

MORE PHOTOS OF THE YELLOW TEDDY BEAR AFTER COMPLETION OF THE INSTALLATION HERE.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I work in the building next to this bear. Ok, the bear by itself may have been an ok sculpture but the lamp? Why is it pushing the bear's head down like that? I walk past it twice a day and see it from my office. Not so great a piece, sorry.

Louisette said...

Famous teddy lamp!impossible to not see ii!

Anonymous said...

This is one of the most ridiculous and hideous pieces of "art" I have ever seen. I work in this building. What a monstrosity, and waste of valuable plaza space all summer long. Instead of tables/chairs with sun umbrellas, which would make this plaza come alive all summer, they plop this thing down. A bear with lamp on its head? It actually looks like the Energizer Bunny with an electrocution device on its head. The artist must be laughing his a** off. Horrible!

Anonymous said...

I cannot understand that most people writing about this piece are not seeing that it clearly depicts a metal lampshade deeply embedded into a toy's cranium. This is a sculpture about political interrogation and torture gone very, very bad.

Anonymous said...

If most people don't see it, it isn´t working. Don't you think? So this piece of "art" is totally wrong even in delivering its message.
I agree with it being hideous and ridiculous, it is terrible that people today can think this is art. And it shouldn't be in this plaza, one of the most important modern spaces in the world.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely fantastic! Tables and chairs and umbrellas are overrated. The lamp bisecting the bears head is unsettling, but intentionally so. And no, the majority doesn't need to understand it for something to be Art, just like the majority doesn't need to understand the fact that Bush served two full terms. It is Art and he did, end of story.

Anonymous said...

Mies van der Rohe made some drawings of sculptures for the plaza, also thought of the possibility of a Henry Moore. Finally decided that people would be the sculpture for the plaza. As Phillys Lambert has said, people make the plaza change all the time. Thankfully this interventions are temporary, but unlucky the ones who travel to NY to see this marvelous building and have to see this space ruined with this unfortunate "work of art".