NEW YORK, NY.- Brookfield Properties, Galerie Buchholz, David Zwirner and Hauser & Wirth today announced the permanent installation of “Rose III” (2016), an eight-meter-tall rose created by German artist Isa Genzken, at Zuccotti Park in the heart of Lower Manhattan. The sculpture was installed on Sunday, September 16th, at the northwest corner of the park. “Rose III” is on long-term loan to Brookfield from art collector and long-time Isa Genzken supporter Lonti Ebers.
Throughout the four decades of Isa Genzken’s career, the subjects of architecture, urban space, and their impact on the social life of cities have been central to Genzken’s singular, multifaceted art practice. Outdoor public sculpture has been a key element of this practice, which Genzken sees as a way of reflecting, complementing, or commenting upon the specific character of a given site’s architectural and historical surroundings. The landscape of New York City, and Lower Manhattan in particular, has long been a source of inspiration and investigation for Genzken, who has made multiple bodies of work dedicated to New York City. Genzken has stated: “To me, New York had a direct link with sculpture…. [It] is a city of incredible stability and solidity.” The installation of “Rose III” at Zuccotti Park marks Genzken’s latest foray into public space, in a city for which she cares deeply.
Standing eight meters (26.2 feet) tall and forged from painted steel, Genzken’s yellow rose is rendered with vivid, meticulous detail. It is based on an actual rose that the artist picked and developed for production with her foundry Kunstgeisserei in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Enlarged to monumental size, the rose poses questions of scale, perspective, and viewership in the public realm. Its tall, narrow proportions suggest the proportions of the skyscrapers that make up Manhattan’s iconic skyline, and which have inspired so much of Genzken’s work. Also iconic is the symbol of the rose itself, for all its complex literary associations throughout history. For Genzken, also of interest is how these shifting meanings relate to shifting values: how roses were once a rare luxury item, and are now a widely available, nearly ubiquitous commodity.
“Rose III” joins a number of other monumental sculptures of roses by Genzken, who sees beauty in capturing the fragility and transience of roses in the sturdy materials of public sculpture. Genzken's earliest “Rose” (1993) was installed at a private residence in Baden-Baden, Germany, with another edition permanently installed at Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. “Rose II” was Genzken’s first realized public sculpture in New York, completed in 2007 and installed at the New Museum from 2010 to 2013, after which it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where it is part of the museum’s sculpture garden. In addition, Genzken made a related work, “Two Orchids” (2015), as part of her participation in the 2015 Venice Biennale, which was then installed in Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park, New York (organized by Public Art Fund, 2016).
Zuccotti Park is located near the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. It is bordered by Broadway, Trinity Place, Cedar Street and Liberty Street. The park, which is owned and operated by Brookfield, was renamed after John E. Zuccotti in 2006 after an extensive renovation to repair damage caused by the attack on the World Trade Center. Mr. Zuccotti made an enduring mark on New York City throughout his storied career during which he held roles including Chairman of the New York City Planning Commission, First Deputy Mayor of the City of New York, Chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York and Chairman of Global Operations for Brookfield Asset Management.
Ric Clark, Senior Managing Partner and Chairman, Brookfield Property Group, said, “Isa Genzken’s larger than life rose is a captivating addition to Zuccotti Park and the landscape of Lower Manhattan. Brookfield is honored to display it for New Yorkers and visitors to appreciate, and we are extremely grateful to Lonti Ebers for her extraordinary generosity, to the artist and to all of the partners that made its installation at Zuccotti Park possible.”
Laura Hoptman, a curator who organized the first exhibition of The Rose at the New Museum as well as the Genzken retrospective at MoMA, and now the Executive Director of the Drawing Center, said, “Over almost forty years, Isa Genzken has pursued a brave and radical vision for a public art created for, and in tune with its environment. The Rose is both an homage to a city that Genzken knows and loves, and a strong statement for unity and equality that every passerby in this city of millions can enjoy. It is a simultaneously a reflection of the empathy of the artist as well as the humanity of its spectators. Like all great art is.”
Jessica Lappin, President of the Alliance for Downtown New York, said, “This is a sculpture that will always remind us of spring and renewal. It is a fitting monument to John Zuccotti's life's work, which led to the renewal of Lower Manhattan.”
Isa Genzken (b. 1948, Bad Osloe, Germany) has exhibited widely for more than four decades. Major institutional exhibitions include “Isa Genzken: Retrospective”, organized by Sabine Breitweiser and Laura Hoptman at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013), which traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2014) and the Dallas Museum of Art (2014-15); a solo presentation in the German Pavilion for the 56th Venice Biennale (2007); “Models for Outdoor Projects”, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, 2016; “Mach dich hübsch!”, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2015), which traveled to Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2016); “Sesam, öffne Dich!”, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, which traveled to Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (both 2010); Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007, 1997, and 1987); Secession, Vienna (2006); and “Jeder braucht mindestens ein Fenster”, Renaissance Society, Chicago, which traveledto Portikus, Frankfurt (both 1992). In 2017, Genzken was awarded the prestigious Goslarer Kaiserring (or the “Emperor’s Ring”) award.
