Barry Flanagan Hospitality

Hospitality by Barry Flanagan (1941–2009, b. Prestatyn, North Wales) depicts a 16-foot-long hare leaping through space. The erect ears and vigorous sculpting of this outsized bronze hare give this work a physical, animal presence. The Battery City Park setting makes this playful hare seem as if it is bounding right through the corporate environment. James M. Clark, Executive Director of the Public Art Fund, comments, “Some people might assume it’s for the children in the playground nearby; other people might find it sparks the child inside of them. For others it might feel like a projection of an alter ego.”

Large Mirror Nijinski, a two-piece work by Flanagan, portrays two hares raised up on pedestals posed like Vaslav Nijinsky dancing in Afternoon of a Faun. Clark notes, “Because the figures are mirror images of one another, together they form a sort of arch . . . like a gateway to Lincoln Center. One of the reasons people live in New York is because they can leave all the day-to-day stuff outside these great theaters and walk into a realm of fantasy. That’s what these hares represent—a passage into a kind of mental space.”