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Fargo Podium by Robert Rauschenberg
Photo: Chela Simon-Trench |
"FARGO PODIUM" (1982) BY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG
Go up the escalators to the second floor of the Citigroup Center and find Fargo Podium to your right. Looking more like a large, plastic, colorful bench platform than a sculpture, this Rauschenberg sculpture is overlooked by almost every passerby. Rauschenberg once said: “I think a picture is more like the real world when it is made out of the real world.” A closer look at the piece reveals collages of historical photographs and writings, forming patterns underneath the plastic exterior. Stay a while and observe people’s interactions with this work. It is amusing to see someone plop down on an original Rauschenberg to finish their phone call, or prop their foot on it to tie their shoelace.
"TRENCH, SHAFTS, PIT, TUNNEL, AND CHAMBERS" (1982) BY BRUCE NAUMAN
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Trench, Shafts, Pit, Tunnel, and Chambers by Bruce Nauman
Photos: Chela Simon-Trench |
Up the next set of escalators and to the right will be a sunny courtyard. Here is Bruce Nauman’s metal sculpture, Trench, Shafts, Pit, Tunnel, and Chambers, in communication with the courtyard’s view of the public library. Nauman’s solid pyramid forms, balanced on circle frames, reflect the colorful pyramid cap atop of the public library. Nauman’s body of work spans many mediums and, to some, feels inconsistent or incoherent. But a through line exists in Nauman’s study of gaps and holes– stories, reflections, and imitations come to life in his use of negative space.
"SHOSHONE" (1981) BY MARK DI SUVERO
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| Shoshone by Mark di Suvero. Photo: Chela Simon-Trench |
Retreat from that courtyard, and head back down the escalator. Now turn right towards the elevator bank, and walk down the hallway until you find another courtyard similar to the Nauman’s – equally peaceful and sunny a respite. Shoshone, Mark di Suvero’s massive red sculpture, dominates the space. It is visible from the street below and pokes into the vista from neighboring buildings. Di Suvero is an iconic abstract expressionist metal sculptor who specializes in large-scale, welded works like this one. Shoshone’s form is an easel-like A-frame, built from massive, industrial slabs of metal similar to that which comprises the surrounding skyscrapers. From certain angles it looks like the Westin Bonaventure hotel is actually propped, like a painting, on Shoshone’s giant easel.
"SOURCE FIGURE" (1991) BY ROBERT GRAHAM
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| Shoshone by Mark di Suvero. Photo: Chela Simon-Trench |
Head back towards the escalators that brought you to the Nauman courtyard and make a left to find yourself on the Bunker Hill Steps. For more information about the steps check out the Angels Walk Los Angeles stanchion behind the sculpture. These steps link Hope Street to 5th Street and were modeled after Rome’s Spanish Steps. A trained hawk and his handler often perch at the top of these steps - it is a great place to see the hawk up close. Also at the top of these steps will be Robert Graham’s Source Figure – an elevated, idealized female figure representing a woman as a vision of Mother Earth, a symbol for the continuum of life moving through downtown. Life flourishes all around the Bunker Hill steps– green plants spill onto the tread, people buzz about, and water flows from Source Figure.
"ULYSSES" (1987) BY ALEXANDER LIBERMAN
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Source Figure by Robert Graham
Photo: Chela Simon-Trench |
Walk uphill on Hope Street. At the first intersection will be Alexander Liberman’s bright white, twisting, looping, funneling Ulysses. Liberman was a Ukrainian-American magazine editor, photographer, painter, and sculptor. In a 1986 interview with Bomb Magazine, Liberman said that he identified his works of art with the aesthetic of screams. Spend some time looking at this work from different angles; it is particularly magical if you stand close and look up – a scream swirling up against the sky and the Bunker Hill skyscrapers.
* Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board 633 West 5th Street, Suite 1800, Los Angeles, CA 90071, USA
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