Bull versus the girl: Iconic New York statues at loggerheads
NEW YORK: A battle is heating up between two iconic New York statues, the legendary ‘Charging Bull’ and new kid on the block ‘ Fearless Girl’, with gender equality, artistic integrity and copyright issues at stake.
The Italian-American artist who created ‘ Charging Bull’, which has stood south of Wall Street for nearly 30 years, alleged Wednesday that ‘ Fearless Girl’ breached his copyright, distorted his artistic message and should be moved elsewhere.
“It’s really bad,” a frail Arturo Di Modica, 76, told reporters, his voice thick with emotion and barely audible. “She’s there attacking the bull,” he added.
The Italian- born sculptor installed his bronze in December 1989, as a celebration of the can- do spirit in America to counter the 1987 Wall Street market crash.
But for a month it has been overshadowed, at least in part by the bronze ‘Fearless Girl’ crafted by US artist Kristen Visbal and installed in March, hands on hips and chin jutting out, directly challenging the bull.
Erected initially for a week and commissioned by a Boston-based investment company to create awareness of the need for greater gender diversity on company boards, the Girl statue became an overnight sensation.
It is now considered a defiant symbol of women’s rights — considered by some under threat by President Donald Trump, the Republican property tycoon who won election in November despite the emergence of a video showing him bragging about groping women.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a vehement Trump critic, has since announced the bronze girl statue will remain in place until at least March next year.
But Di Modica’s lawyers say it has transformed the bull ‘into a negative force and a threat’ and turned his career triumph into a derivative work without permission. — AFP