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• Sculptor: Lee Lawrie.
• Dedicated: 1937.
• Medium and size: Overall 45 feet; bronze figure (15 feet) with armillary sphere (21-foot diameter), granite pedestal (9 feet).
• Location: In front of the International Building of Rockefeller Center, 630 Fifth Avenue, between 50th and 51st Streets (facing St. Patrick’s Cathedral).

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Atlas Shrugs

“Mr. Rearden,” said Francisco, his voice solemnly calm, “if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders—what would you tell him to do?”

“I . . . don’t know. What . . . could he do? What would you tell him?”

“To shrug.”

— Ayn Rand, 1957

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NOTE: This post is adapted from a chapter in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide. For other excerpts, click “Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan book” in the tag cloud at right. I’ve left in cross-references to other chapters in the book, but added links when (as of this writing) I’ve added the chapter to this site.

About the sculpture

In Greek mythology, Atlas was condemned to carry the weight of the sky as punishment for having opposed Zeus. Instead of the usual globe, the Rockefeller Center Atlas supports an armillary sphere, designed to show the movements of heavenly bodies. This one is reduced to three rings bearing signs of the zodiac. In esthetic terms such simplification makes sense: the armillary sphere allows light to fall through to the figure beneath.

For many fans of Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged (excerpt above), the Rockefeller Atlas is a symbol of Rand’s heroic view of man. That’s an emotional reaction based on the subject of the sculpture combined with the values of those readers. (See Booth and Conkling, Chapters 17 and 18.) I, too, love Atlas Shrugged, but I dislike this sculpture intensely for its philosophical message. Rand’s heroes are the men of the mind, and I’ve never seen a less intellectual-looking figure than this Atlas, with his bulky muscles and disproportionately small head. What the artist implies is: Muscles matter more than brains, and it’s the muscle-bound laborers who bear the world on their shoulders. On the metaphysical implications of a sculpture’s theme, see Shakespeare (Chapter 37); on philosophical evaluation of those implications, see Eleanor Roosevelt and Hamilton (Chapters 40 and 43.)

For a completely different interpretation of Atlas, walk up Fifth Avenue and study the Atlas who’s been supporting the clock on Tiffany’s facade since 1853. Not only does he have a much more attractive physique, he has historical associations with profitable business and glittering wealth that are very appealing. (More on that Atlas here.)

About the subject

When Atlas was unveiled in 1937, protesters claimed that it resembled Benito Mussolini.

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Far-fetched? A relief done at about the same time for the neighboring Italian Building had such obvious Fascist imagery and slogans that it was boarded over a week after the United States entered World War II. (See below.)

Nor did Atlas find many admirers in the following decade. On March 7, 1943, New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewell and half a dozen cronies from the New York art scene jokingly deliberated which New York sculptures should be melted down to provide scrap metal for the war effort. Echoing the original protests, painter James Montgomery Flagg said Atlas “looks too much as Mussolini thinks he looks.” Collector Chester Dale found in it “nothing worthy whatsoever.” Whitney Museum Director Juliana Force said it “contains much material extraneous to art.” Sculptor William Zorach found it “bombastic [and] pretentious.”

Other Fascist Symbolism at Rockefeller Center

This is the glass relief by Attilio Piccirilli on the Italian Building (626 Fifth Avenue) that was boarded over when the United States entered World War II. I think the offensive bit is the colored stone relief above Piccirilli’s glass relief. At the center of the stone relief is a fasces, from which the Fascist party took its name.

Leo Lentilli’s cornice reliefs on 626 Fifth Avenue symbolize four important phases in Italian history: Ancient Rome, the Renaissance, the Unification of Italy, and … Fascism. The inscription “AXII” below the fasces, referring to Mussolini’s triumphal march to Rome on August 12, 1922, has been chiseled off.

More

• One’s reaction to a work of art depends on knowledge about its context as well as the subject and style of the work. Another factor that affects my emotional response to the Atlas at Rockefeller Center is my knowledge that it was sculpted in the heyday of “Social Realism.” Social Realism is concisely described by Tom Wolfe in The Painted Word: “Left politicians said, in effect: You artists claim to be dedicated to an anti-bourgeois life. Well, the hour has now come to stop merely posing and to take action, to turn your art into a weapon. Translation: propaganda paintings. The influence of Left politics was so strong within the art world during the 1930s that Social Realism became not a style of the period but the style of the period.”
• For more on Atlas at Rockefeller Center, see this page.
• This post is adapted from a chapter in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide.
• In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. More here.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my Sunday Recommendations list: details here.