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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Sixty Eight: A city portrait -- impressions of New York > Pediment, New York Stock Exchange, New York City, New York, 2009
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18-MAR-2009

Pediment, New York Stock Exchange, New York City, New York, 2009

The current home of the New York Stock Exchange was opened in 1903. Its pediment features a massive marble sculpture by John Quincy Adams Ward called “Integrity Protecting the Works of Man,” – an ironic title when seen in the context of Bernard Madoff's ruinous Ponzi scam. I abstract Ward’s work, honing it down to just the two laboring figures at the far corner of his busy eleven figure sculpture complex. This enabled me to build the image around the diagonal frame that crowns the pediment of the Stock Exchange. A faint trace of safety netting can be seen covering the bodies, no doubt installed to protect pedestrians below from the potentially dangerous effects of weathering on the 106 year old sculptures.

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Phil Douglis10-Aug-2012 17:50
Thanks much, Jonathan, for this update. I had assumed that these were the originals, and was glad to know that the Exchange replaced these marble figures with those "lightweight" ten ton replicas seventy six years ago.
heath 09-Aug-2012 23:23
Found you website and another while surfing. Read your caption and thought you might find the following information interesting.

"...106 year old sculptures."

"...Interestingly, in 1936, due to the statue's weight (approximately 90 tons), the Exchange replaced the marble figures with lead-coated replicas weighing only 10 tons..."

Jonathan Wellum
Jonathan Wellum is CEO and CIO of RockLinc Investment Partners, and a Senior Fellow for Cardus (www.cardus.ca/comment/article/1315/ask-not-how-government-will-fix-the-economy)
Phil Douglis13-Apr-2009 15:39
Thanks, Chris -- the diagonal, along with the play of light and shadow, energizes the figures. Thanks for the comment, Chris.
Chris Sofopoulos13-Apr-2009 09:46
I like this play with forms, with lines and diagonals and with light and shadow upon bodies!
A wonderful framing as well Phil.
Phil Douglis01-Apr-2009 00:59
I love pediments for that reason, Rose Marie. They make great diagonals. As for the netting, your pigeon suggestion could well be a benefit, but if that is the reason for their installation, I would think that these institutions are more interested in protecting the statues from the pigeons than pedestrians. Pedestrians don't generally sue if a pigeon unloads its droppings on them, but they certainly would sue if a statue or part of a statue should drop on them. Perhaps someone out there can give us additional insight on this issue.
sunlightpix31-Mar-2009 21:53
Great diagonal framing!

I thought the netting is to keep out the pigeons and protect pedestrians below from the droppings.
Carol E Sandgren31-Mar-2009 00:15
You do wonders with the composition here. Not only do you add an interesting diagonal but making it also suggest a kind of shelter for the lone lying figures.
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