Monday, August 3, 2009

RIP Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor who created the Astor Place cube

Charlie Finch has the feature at Artnet:

Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor of the revolving black cube on Astor Place, died over the weekend at age 94. For myself and thousands of other East Villagers, this was the work of art that touched (and was touched by) us most. The memories of Village life revolve with it.

I first felt Alamo (the name of the cube) soon after it was installed in 1967. Coming home from concerts at the Fillmore East, guys would spin it to impress their girls then hop the subway for points north and south.


Here's the cube circa 1970 (Via)



After it was tagged in April 2006 (Via)

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4 comments:

  1. esquared™August 3, 2009 at 10:15 PM

    Well, fuck, indeed.

    Let's just hope that Bloomberg, the Parks Dept., or the city does not demolish the cube, much like what they did to the Tower of Toys when Boros passed away.

    You're in a much better place now than the EV, Tony. RIP.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 3, 2009 at 10:30 PM

    What great photos! I forgot about the graffiti that covered the cube. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. EV GrieveAugust 3, 2009 at 11:02 PM

    Thanks, LL! I had forgotten about the graffiti myself...though I remembered when it was turned into a rubik's cube...

    http://www.alltooflat.com/pranks/cube/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ms. O.August 4, 2009 at 10:49 PM

    SO glad you put the rubik's link!!! That's exactly the cube memory I thought of when I read your post.

    ReplyDelete

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