New Yorkers, busy with their workday, are bound to do a double take when they see this: a thirty foot golden replica of Michelangelo's famous David sculpture.
David was rolling through the city streets at a leisurely pace before parking in front of Manhattan's Storefront for Art and Architecture. It's come all the way from Istanbul and it's on its way to the 21c Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.
But first its creator, Turkish conceptual artist, Serkan Ozkaya wanted the Renaissance icon to see the Big Apple. He says, "Because Istanbul is a city that doesn't really have that kind of aesthetics, like Renaissance aesthetics. People seriously couldn't look at it, like people covered their faces when they saw this because it was a naked boy and that was the moment I realized that it was actually a sculpture of a naked boy, instead of Michelangelo's David. In New York I wanted to have it on a truck because I wanted to see it in Chinatown, I wanted to see it on the bridge, I wanted to see it on 5th Avenue and so on and so forth, and bring it over and offer it to people."
The work of art titled, "David inspired by Michelangelo" took seven years to make. Chief curator of the 21c Museum, Alice Gray Stites, acquired the sculpture and commissioned its travel, she says, "Is this a work of art? Is this a copy? Is this a reference to the reproductions of David that you see all over the world as little tchotchke? But this one's on steroids. So there are lots of ways that people will interact with it, and that's actually part of the work itself, is people's interactions with it. How they respond to it, do they approach it, do they like it? Do they think it's strange?" Stites isn't sure whether it will be permanently stationed in Kentucky, or continue to travel.
The original six-ton marble nude depicting the biblical hero who killed Goliath, resides in Florence.
Reuters
