Storm King Takes Art To New Viewing Heights…

I was searching for an escape.

The Yankees lost a close game Saturday night…victory snatched away in the bottom of the 9th.

I threw together a Sunday game plan and we executed it to perfection.

Up and out the door by 8am yesterday.

Storm King Art Center

Destination…Storm King Art Center, one of the world’s leading sculpture parks.

We cruised over a deserted George Washington Bridge and zipped up a colorful Palisades Parkway.

We were at Storm King Art Center in 60 minutes.

Storm King is a public nonprofit museum.

Two local business partners, Ralph E. Ogden and H. Peter Stern, started the Art Center in 1960.

Stern is the chairman of the board of trustees. Mr. Ogden passed away in 1974.

Storm King

For more than 50 years, Storm King has been drawing crowds who revel in viewing more than 100 sculptures and installations by acclaimed artists.

We walked the 500 acres of fields and undulating hills, racking up 7 1/2 miles and over 40 flights of stairs.

If you are not a walker, there is a tram that takes you around the property as well as bikes for rent.

We shunned the tram. It was worth every single one of the 19,000 steps we took, garnering cultural and visual stimulation.

The center opens at 9am on Sunday and we were among the first to arrive and spent 2 hours at one with the artwork.

By 11am the crowds amassed and flooded the acreage, but you never felt crowded.

David Smith

David Smith’s 13 works are proudly displayed near the museum building as Smith’s work was some of the first art to be acquired and exhibited outside, commingling art and nature.

Calder

Several large Calders dominate the hillside.

Alyson Shotz, Mirror Fence

Down the hill the Alyson Shotz, Mirror Fence, reflects the autumnal surroundings.

By the way, Storm King is the perfect place to view the changing foliage.

Three-Legged Buddha

A short stroll from the Mirror Fence stands my favorite sculpture,

The Three Legged Buddha by Chinese artist, Zhang Huan, comprised of steel and copper, is impressive and whimsical.

Andy Goldsworthy

Nearby is British artist, Andy Goldsworthy, fieldstone wall, Five Men, Seventeen Days, Fifteen Boulders, One Wall, commanding the landscape.

Storm King is a perfect family excursion.

Slide Sculpture

There are swing and slide sculptures and hills for kids to roll down.

Maya Lin, Wakefield

Another favorite is the Maya Lin, Storm King Wavefield, which covers 4 acres.

Viewed from above, it looks like undulating waves. conceived by American sculptor and land artist Lin who is known for her Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C.

Lin achieved national recognition at the age of 21 while still an undergraduate at Yale University when her Vietnam Veterans Memorial design was chosen in a national competition.

We covered the South Fields and Meadows so we stopped for a coffee at the snack bar set in the woods and then proceeded to the North Woods completing the clockwise circle around the massive property.

Gazebo for Two Anarchists

We paused for a moment at the Gazebo for Two Anarchists by Iranian born artist, Siah Armajani. It is dedicated to twentieth century anarchists with the open lattice representing a prison cell and the chair indicative of the electric chair.

Isamu Noguchi, Mamo Taro

The last sculpture we witnessed was Momo Taro by Isamu Noguchi perched on a hilltop. Storm King commissioned the artwork and Noguchi worked on it on the Japanese island of Shikoku. When the largest boulder was halved, it resembled a split peach.

If you crave art, culture, the outdoors and exercise, Storm King should be on your bucket list.

It was an exhilarating day trip.

Storm King Art Center 1 Museum Road New Windsor, New York. Open April through November. Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm, Monday, Wednesday through Friday 10am-5:30pm. Closed Tuesdays.

 

One Comment

  1. Super cool !!!! !!!!!

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