I took a
leisurely stroll through Fox Playground on
Friday, December 3rd with Nick DiBrino and
Tom Casey looking at an array of palm trees.
None were real and when we got to Rafael
Ferrer’s Puerto Rican Sun Sculpture at the
southeast corner of East 156th and Fox
Streets, the sun was bright but at 9:30 AM
the temperature was still hovering around 35
degrees. You could feel the cold hardness of
the thick steel and it sent a chill
throughout your body. It was a sharp
contrast to the subject matter which
portrayed two palm trees arched toward each
other at the top where an image of the sun
filled the void between the tree tops. I had
passed the .94 acre park any number of times
but on this visit I took the time to walk
slowly around and examine the 25’ tall
sculpture up close. The touch of the cold
steel contrasted sharply with the warmth
depicted by the scene.
The six-ton sculpture was created by Rafael
Ferrer expressly for this playground at a
commissioned price of $25,000 and it was
dedicated on October 16, 1979. It was
fabricated from Cor-Ten steel, sometimes
called weathered steel because of its rust
color.
 |
Nick
DiBrino and Tom Casey pose
beneath Rafael Ferrer's "Sun
Sculpture." |
It is
not supposed to actually rust but this work
of art did suffer from a combination of a
little graffiti and the elements primarily
with the paint chipping and it had to be
completely restored with the artist’s
advisory assistance in 2003. It seemed to be
holding up quite well on my visit.
The
artist himself is a fascinating study as his
first career was as a jazz drummer. He was
born in 1933 and lived with his
half-brother, Jose Ferrer and his wife
Rosemary Clooney in Hollywood while in
college so did have access to some rather
influential people. He would later study
abroad but would always be influenced by his
birthplace in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He
taught at the School of Visual Arts in
Manhattan for a couple of years, lectured
widely on art throughout the nation and was
the recipient of numerous awards. His sun
sculpture in Fox Playground was his first
large size commission in the United States
and locals are pleased that he chose the
Bronx as the venue for that important work.
The site of the sculpture was created as a
playground in 1979 but was not named until
1987 when it was given the name Fox
Playground. It was named for William Fox, a
large landowner of the area who was also
related to the Leggett and Tiffany families
through marriage. William Fox, by the way,
is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery here in the
Bronx and all three families, Fox, Leggett,
and Tiffany, have local streets named for
them. |