Divinity on the Avenue

While zigzagging around New York City last October, I walked to Central Park by way of the Avenue of the Americas when these two massive creatures, reminiscent of Venus de Milo, intrigued me with their stature at W52nd Street. I stood there looking up at them, their gnarled exterior both grotesque and stimulating, their postures fine examples of that sexy effeminate S-curve, their bronze forms rising out of a paper thin pool of water for all to see. I remember pulling out my faithful notebook and recording the intersection for this one, because I knew I'd want to look it up later! I could just gaze at these imposing ladies for hours... these two and their friend on the other side of the building.

Whenever I'm on a photographic adventure to an unfamiliar city, I ensure that I take a few shots of intersecting street signs along the way so that I can retrace my route on Google Maps upon my return. I vigorously maintain the order of pictures on my SD card for this reason as well, just because I take so many and I like to know what it is that I've captured.

This image initially posed somewhat of a challenge for me to identify. I knew which street they were on, but I couldn't seem to pull them out of any of my online searches. All my efforts seemed to be monopolised by another familiar Sixth Avenue creation, Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture, with which I was familiar, but not as enthralled... evidenced by the amount of love it received from my lens:

Back to the Venus statues, I did find their exact location on the satellite view of Google Maps. I like being able to see the footprint of the statues, each one living inside of squares on either side of the building:

credit: Google Maps

However, I still didn't know what they were called. I was telling a girlfriend of mine (who happens to vivaciously share my love of Manhattan) about this image I wanted to post, and she reminded me of the option of searching using "Images" instead of "Web". Of course! I had forgotten about that option! So I am happy to report that I have since learned that the sculptures in my photo are entitled Looking Toward the Avenue by Jim Dine. Pleasure to meet you, ladies!