Since opening in 1939, the Museum’s sculpture garden has served as an oasis in the city (as a press release declared), offering visitors respite from the frenzy of Midtown Manhattan. The garden was initially envisioned as an informal space for changing installations that united nature, architecture, and art. In 1953, architect Philip Johnson was commissioned to redesign it; he introduced four distinct marble-paved areas for displaying sculpture alongside shallow rectangular pools, trees, and seasonal plants. At that time, it was renamed the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden in memory of one of the Museum’s three founders.
Oasis in the City brings together a variety of works that explore figurative and abstract forms, spanning the late 19th century to the present. Returning to the garden for the first time in more than 50 years is a monumental sculpture from 1968 by Jean Dubuffet. It joins works such as Auguste Rodin’s St. John the Baptist Preaching (1878–80) and Henry Moore’s Family Group (1948–49), as well as more recent additions, such as Lynda Benglis’s Double Fountain, Mother and Child (2007).
Organized by the Department of Painting and Sculpture.
