World's Fair statue being restored

From the Daily News:

For the first time in almost 50 years, gold stars are shining above the towering Rocket Thrower in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The bronze statue, crafted for the 1964 World’s Fair, has been reborn, thanks to a meticulous restoration that is in its final phase.

More than 40-feet tall, the artwork evokes both Space Age and Classical imagery with its a male figure launching a rocket into space — a constellation of stars at his fingertips.

When sculptor Donald De Lue’s artwork was unveiled at the fair, it was derided by some critics. But then-Parks Commissioner and World’s Fair mastermind Robert Moses rushed to its defense.

Neglected World's Fair statue to be restored

From the NY Times:

Twenty-five years ago, the Municipal Art Society opened a campaign to preserve 20 public sculptures. (I remember it as clearly as if I’d covered it myself.) The idea of the program, Adopt-a-Monument, was to entice benefactors into supporting specific artworks for which the city could no longer afford to care.

There was a needy monument for just about every philanthropic budget.

Nineteen of the 20 monuments were eventually adopted. The program was so successful that 16 more monuments were added, as were 15 public murals, under a companion drive called Adopt-a-Mural.

But one adoptive prospect had yet to be fully financed until now.

That would be Donald DeLue’s 43-foot-tall bronze “Rocket Thrower,” on the grounds of the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. It might be described as an icon of heroic, midcentury, monumental Neo-Classicism. It might also be described as a gargantuan fairgrounds tchotchke of homoerotic kitsch.

A restoration fund has finally come together. “Rocket Thrower” was awarded a $10,000 grant from the new Partners in Preservation program. About $11,000 has been contributed in small amounts. Marvin and Donna Schwartz have given $15,000. And $79,000 more is to be drawn from a $600,000 bequest to the Adopt-a-Monument program by George Trescher, a leading fund-raiser who died in 2003.