Post by: Camila da Paz | Source: Design Like
A scaled model of Manhattan hand carved from a block of marble tips the scales at an astounding two-and-a-half tons and measures 21 3/4 x 104 3/8 x 33 1/2 inches.
The miniature creation of America's most famous skyline, carved by Japanese artist Yutaka Sone, had art enthusiasts at a New York City gallery awestruck.
This impressive map was exhibited between September and October, 2011 at the David Zwirner gallery in New York. Little Manhattan’s sculpture map reflect an obsessive attention to details of the artist who tried to recreate the island to scale in marble, pending more than two years after 2006 making a wood-and-foam model based on Google Earth and his own photos taken during a helicopter ride to render Manhattan with its Central Park, skyscrapers, streets, avenues, and the bridges to the east and west to scale.
It was the highlight of the exhibit when it opened, with passers-by noting the painstaking precision with which Mr Sone carved the city's every building and sloping street.
The exhibition marks Mr Sone's fifth solo showing since his first exhibition at the gallery in 1999. The exhibition also included other marble works and sculptures of trees.
Some structures from the sculpture were slightly enlarged to show their iconic details which together with the pure white marble give an industrial look to the top, while the bottom is more elegant and poetic appearing from a distance like a large, weightless feminine dress.
Contemporary artist Yutaka Sone was born in 1965 in Shizuoka, Japan.
Sone studied fine art and architecture at Tokyo Geijutsu University and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Across a wide range of media, Sone's work revolves around a tension between realism and perfection. A conceptual framework, paired with a meticulous attention to detail, has characterized his practice since the early 1990s.
His sculptural works in particular attest to a profound interest in landscapes, whether natural or architectural. Work by the artist is held in prominent international museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Kunsthalle Bern; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Yutaka Sone is represented by Tommy Simoens, Antwerp.
