ART: Ugo Rondinone Gets Stoned at Roc Center

Last week in collaboration with NYC's Public Art Fund, Swiss born, New York based artist Ugo Rondinone installed his project Human Nature in NYC. The project includes nine blue stone figures along the full length of Rockefeller Plaza between 49th and 50th Streets. Ranging in height from 16 to 20 feet, and weighing in at up to 30,000 lbs each, the scale of the works makes them nearly impossible to avoid while strolling through one of NYCs most visited sites.

Part Colossus, part Stonehenge, Ugo forces the viewers to come in contact with one of our most primitive forms of expression, beat up rocks, or sculpture.  The project aims to connect the modern and the ancient. Surrounded by the global broadcasting, business, and technological epicenter that is Rockefeller Center, the figures remind us that, as Robin Cembalest puts it in her ARTnews article, "even in an era of touchscreens and interactive spectacle, it’s human nature to feel awed and inspired in the presence of a giant rock."

Ugo Rondinone is a conceptual artist whose work has been installed in many countries, including Italy, France, Australia, The Netherlands, Spain, throughout the USA, and more.

Human Nature is on view through June 7th, 2013.

You can get more info on the project here.