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Wall Street 'Charging Bull' Sculptor Arturo Di Modica Dies at 80

15 points by doppp 6y ago

bko 6y ago
I remember all the news stories when the Fearless Girl statue [0] was erected to oppose Charging Bull [1]. So I looked into the back story of each statue. Charging Bull: The sculpture was created by Italian artist Arturo Di Modica in the wake of the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash. On December 14, 1989, Di Modica arrived on Wall Street with Charging Bull on the back of a truck and illegally dropped the sculpture outside of the New York Stock Exchange Building. Di Modica had arrived in New York from Italy in 1970 penniless and risen up to success. Fearless Girl: A bronze sculpture by Kristen Visbal, commissioned by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), a large asset management company. It was a campaign developed by advertising agency McCann New York. I found it ironic the Charging Bull was basically a Banksy style illegal art project while Fearless Girl was corporate art commissioned by an asset manager controlling $3.5 trillion of assets. Reminds me that things aren't always what they seem at first glance [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Girl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Girl [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_Bull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_Bull
- sonnyp 6y ago
  Thanks for sharing
- maxcan 6y ago
  Yeah.. the false narrative that arose around the charging bull when they brought out the fearless girl was pretty infuriating. All they needed to do was one simple thing to fix the symbolism - turn the girl so she's facing the same direction of the bull and its a message of strength through unity, the girl and the bull fighting the same battle etc etc. Instead they turned it into girl vs bull, us vs them, tribal bs.
  - jhbadger 6y ago
    I'm not sure that having the girl facing the same direction would be interpreted as "being on the same side". It would be more like she was going to get unknowingly gored by the heartless beast of the market behind her.
- noblethrasher 6y ago
  Good coverage of the topic in the first three minutes of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9iab0z6Kyg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9iab0z6Kyg

15 points by doppp 6y ago

bko 6y ago

I remember all the news stories when the Fearless Girl statue [0] was erected to oppose Charging Bull [1]. So I looked into the back story of each statue. Charging Bull: The sculpture was created by Italian artist Arturo Di Modica in the wake of the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash. On December 14, 1989, Di Modica arrived on Wall Street with Charging Bull on the back of a truck and illegally dropped the sculpture outside of the New York Stock Exchange Building. Di Modica had arrived in New York from Italy in 1970 penniless and risen up to success. Fearless Girl: A bronze sculpture by Kristen Visbal, commissioned by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), a large asset management company. It was a campaign developed by advertising agency McCann New York. I found it ironic the Charging Bull was basically a Banksy style illegal art project while Fearless Girl was corporate art commissioned by an asset manager controlling $3.5 trillion of assets. Reminds me that things aren't always what they seem at first glance [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Girl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Girl [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_Bull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_Bull

sonnyp 6y ago
Thanks for sharing
maxcan 6y ago
Yeah.. the false narrative that arose around the charging bull when they brought out the fearless girl was pretty infuriating. All they needed to do was one simple thing to fix the symbolism - turn the girl so she's facing the same direction of the bull and its a message of strength through unity, the girl and the bull fighting the same battle etc etc. Instead they turned it into girl vs bull, us vs them, tribal bs.
- jhbadger 6y ago
  I'm not sure that having the girl facing the same direction would be interpreted as "being on the same side". It would be more like she was going to get unknowingly gored by the heartless beast of the market behind her.
noblethrasher 6y ago
Good coverage of the topic in the first three minutes of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9iab0z6Kyg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9iab0z6Kyg