This installation brings together diverse works around the theme of the modern monument. Included are Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk (1967), which does not commemorate a specific event but, rather, serves as a symbolic monument for all people, and Pablo Picasso’s Monument (1972), a memorial for the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who died of influenza at the end of World War I. These two works are joined by Figurengruppe/Group of Figures (2006–08) by German artist Katharina Fritsch, comprising nine boldly-colored, life-size figures, among them St. Michael, a Madonna, a giant, and a snake. Favorites like Joan Miró’s Moonbird (1966) and Aristide Maillol’s The River (1943) are shown alongside works by Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Tony Smith, and others. Also on view is the 36-foot-tall Rose II (2007), made by Isa Genzken, and Thomas Schütte’s United Enemies I (2011), two pairs of massive bronze abstracted human figures, each bound together with rope. Making its debut in the Sculpture Garden is Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Bent Lace (2014), an abstract bronze sculpture whose thick, curved form is perforated at the top with delicate lace-like patterns.
Organized by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture.
