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Most comprehensive guidebook in
print to outdoor sculpture in Manhattan
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About Forgotten Delights
What is art?
Why "Forgotten Delights"?
What’s on this site?
Who’s in charge of this site?
What is art?
A work of art is an artist’s chance to say, “Stop! Look! Think!” It’s his opportunity to tell all of us, immersed as we are in the concrete details of our everyday lives, what’s important, what matters—at least in his point of view.
You may agree with the artist, in which case you’ll feel inspired by his work—you’ll see in concrete form the world as you feel it can be.
You may disagree with the artist’s ideas, but consider the artwork worth a closer look despite that, because it widens your perspective or helps you better understand why you love the art you do love.
You may find that you love a work, but someone you thought you knew well hates it, which makes an interesting springboard for discussion.
A wide range of periods and styles are represented on this site because I’m endlessly fascinated at how much I can see in even an apparently mediocre, derivative work whose content I disagree with. If you spend enough time on this site, I hope you’ll find you’re fascinated, too.
My understanding of art is based on Ayn Rand’s writings on esthetics, notably in The Romantic Manifesto. However, I am not a spokesman for her philosophy of Objectivism and the works on this site are not necessarily works she would have admired. In the discussions on the site, I have not assumed knowledge of Ayn Rand’s writings—the site is aimed at anyone interested in representational art.
Why "Forgotten Delights"?
Back in 2002, I envisioned writing a series of 6 short books that together would describe and discuss most of Manhattan's outdoor representational sculpture. “Forgotten Delights” seemed fitting for a series title because so many of these sculptures are thoroughly enjoyable but often ignored: we see them frequently but lack information about them. The first volume, Forgotten Delights: The Producers, self-published in 2003, celebrated sculptures of explorers, inventors, engineers, businessmen and workers. While I was at work on the second volume (Defenders), I signed a contract with New York University Press to write a book on 54 of Manhattan's best outdoor representational sculptures, which will appear in February 2007 as Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide. In it I aim not only to put the sculptures in their historical and artistic context, but to give the reader a method by which he can study, analyze and appreciate any work of sculpture. Given that the best of Manhattan's sculptures appear in Outdoor Monuments, I do not plan to write the other projected volumes in the Forgotten Delights series. (But not to worry, I do have another book in the works that will make you look at another branch of art in a very different way.)
For a short, informal explanation of why abstract works are not included on this site, see my essay on Christo's Gates.
What's on this site?
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Lectures, essays and reports on art and politics by Dianne Durante, ranging from an essay on MacMonnies’ sculpture Nathan Hale to the state of
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Information about upcoming lectures and publications by Dianne Durante, including details about the Forgotten Delights series.
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Gifts, greetings, and recommended readings, including writings by Ayn Rand and other Objectivists, and lists of books on art history, painting, sculpture, and
Who's in charge of this site?
This site is written and maintained by Dianne
Durante (Ph.D. Classics,
