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Most comprehensive guidebook in print to outdoor sculpture in Manhattan
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Forgotten Delights FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

To submit a question, email Dianne Durante at comments@forgottendelights.com .

  1. Most of the sculptures on this site represent dead white guys. Why should I care about them?
  2. I don't live in New York City and I never, ever plan to visit. Why should I read about NYC sculpture?
  3. How did you get interested in these sculptures, which most people rush past without a second glance?
  4. You once promised to write 6 or 7 volumes covering all representational sculpture in Manhattan. Only Forgotten Delights: The Producers appeared. When will you finish the Forgotten Delights series?
  5. Why do you use Ayn Rand's esthetics as the basis for your writing?

 

Question 1. Most of the sculptures on this site, in Forgotten Delights: The Producers and in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan represent dead white guys. Why should I care about them?

The defunctness, skin color and gender of the people represented in these sculptures is irrelevant. What I aim to convey in my descriptions (particularly in the books) is admiration for the sort of achievements that changed New York City, the United States and sometimes the world. The sight of such achievements, usually won in the face of obstacles and opposition, gives me courage to carry on my own more modest battles. It can do the same for you.

Question 2. I don't live in New York City and I never, ever plan to visit. Why should I read about New York City sculpture?

The best reason is for the inspiration of seeing a job done superlatively well. (See #1.) I aim for the sort of upbeat, admiring attitude that David McCullough and John Steele Gordon bring to their historical writings.

The other reason for reading about these sculptures on www.ForgottenDelights.com, in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan or in Forgotten Delights: The Producers is that I aim to teach you how to look systematically at sculpture in your house, your hometown, or any museum worldwide. With practice, you'll be able to spend more time enjoying your favorite pieces and are more likely to find other pieces to enjoy. Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan has an appendix devoted to how to "read" a sculpture.

 

Question 3. How did you get interested in these sculptures, which most people rush past without a second glance?

Eight months after 9/11, my husband and I treated ourselves to an overnight stay in the Wall Street area. We planned to spend the next morning strolling around Lower Manhattan, but didn't want to wander aimlessly or do any of the usual tourist excursions. Years before, on a whim, I'd bought The Art Commission and Municipal Art Society Guide to Manhattan's Outdoor Sculpture, which illustrated over 200 sculptures but gave a very limited amount of information on each. I chose a few sculptures that interested me - Washington at Broad Street, Ericsson and the East Coast Memorial in Battery Park - did further research on them, and even picked a poem to read in front of one of them (Braley's "The Thinker"). Visiting these works with that sort of information was so entertaining and inspiring that I resolved to research and write more on other representational sculptures in Manhattan. It was a bonus that most of the sculptures in question are easily accessible on public property and are old enough that copyright restrictions no longer apply to publishing photographs of them.

Question 4. You once promised to write 6 or 7 volumes covering all representational sculpture in Manhattan. Only Forgotten Delights: The Producers appeared. When will you finish the Forgotten Delights series?

After my excursion to visit sculptures in Lower Manhattan in 2002 (see FAQ #3), I eagerly outlined a proposal for a book on outdoor sculptures in Manhattan. A hundred agents and several dozen publishers failed to share my enthusiasm. Those who responded pronounced the subject too arcane for a mass-market book. Eventually I decided to self-publish 19 essays in hopes that seeing the publication as I envisioned it would help persuade a publisher of the project's viability. That was Forgotten Delights: The Producers (On the process of getting that book into print and listed on Amazon, see "Thoughts on Self-Publishing" on this site.)

In mid-2005, by a combination of stubbornness and serendipity, I attracted the interest of literary agent Rita Rosenkranz, one of whose interests is nonfiction works on New York. She pitched a book on New York sculpture to New York University Press, which had recently released a book by one of her authors that received good reviews and was selling steadily.

The New York University Press editor and I agreed that rather than briefly describing hundreds of outdoor sculptures, I would choose about 50 that were top-notch esthetically and/or interesting for other reasons. Since Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan (due out in February 2007) includes the best works from all the projected Forgotten Delights volumes, I've decided not to continue the Forgotten Delights series. If I can figure out a way to make it profitable, I may eventually upload my database of New York City sculpture (including location and brief bibliographical references) so it can be searched and sorted online.

The Forgotten Delights series is no longer on my to-do pile, but stay tuned to this site for news about a work in progress that that will make you look at another branch of art in New York in a very different way! If you add your name to the Forgotten Delights mailing list, you'll be one of the first to hear of it.

Question 5.  Why do you use Ayn Rand's esthetics as the basis for your writing?

When discussing the theory of art in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide, I cited only Ayn Rand's esthetics. An early reader suggested I "balance" the presentation by mentioning other writers on esthetics.

But here's the problem: no one surpasses or even equals Ayn Rand in the field of esthetics. Rand treats art with the same rigor she applies to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and politics. She begins her discussion by stating what art is and what purpose it serves for human beings. Her definition, "a selective re-creation of reality based on an artist's metaphysical value-judgments," indicates that an artist chooses his subject and style based on what he considers important, and creates something recognizable so that others will see it and grasp his message: "This matters - pay attention to this."

Rand lays out the fundamentals of the field of esthetics. Using her definition of art plus her theory of knowledge (see Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology), one can determine what is and is not art: driftwood, paint splattered on a canvas, the Parthenon frieze? One can determine the esthetic requirements for good art: Is a portrait by Rembrandt better than one by Picasso in his Cubist phase? One can even explain why people often react so violently to works of art: "It repulses me but I can't turn away!"

I have read hundreds of books by art critics and historians, many of whom have an encyclopedic grasp of their subject and descriptive abilities that make me wildly jealous. Not one of them offers a proper definition of art. The fifth edition of Janson's widely used History of Art, for example, says a work of art is "an esthetic object" and that "esthetic" means "that which concerns the beautiful." The term is, he promptly admits, unsatisfactory, but "will have to do for lack of a better one."

When I'm visiting a gallery or reading a novel, I can and do revel in art without first subjecting it to rigorous esthetic analysis. I've found, though, that I can extend my enjoyment if I think about a particular work as well. For purposes of thinking about art and conveying my ideas to others, a proper definition is indispensable. In that respect, I have found Ayn Rand's essays on esthetics in Romantic Manifesto, Art of Fiction, Art of Nonfiction, and Ayn Rand Answers (the esthetics section) invaluable and irreplaceable.

For more of my writing based on Ayn Rand's esthetics, see

 

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