Read more El Toro de Oro goes on view today outside the Gansevoort Meatpacking hotel. Who says New York City has no time for bull? A new four-hoofed art installation in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District is both an homage and artsy throw-down to the iconic Golden Bull a few miles south on Wall Street. Released as part of New York’s inaugural Art Week—and in celebration of Cinco de Mayo — El Toro de Oro by Mexican contemporary Artist Enrique Cabrera, debuts today at 5 p.m. in front of the Gansevoort Meatpacking hotel, which recently emerged from a $30 million renovation. The temporary sculpture will remain in place through the summer. The cobblestone-street neighborhood once known for drugs and prostitution turned around in the late 1990s and early 2000s with fashionable boutiques by designers like Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen, and later transformed with the rise of the The High Line pedestrian park. Today, the district that runs from West 14th Street south to Gansevoort Street, and from the Hudson River east to Hudson Street, is home to some of Manhattan’s priciest apartments and shops even as it maintains its boho-chic cred. The bull fits right in. The geometric bovine atop a wooden butcher block-inspired base is said to be a visual representation of the Meatpacking District’s muscular turnaround from gritty industrial no-man’s-land to a thriving global hub of art, fashion and luxury retail. El Toro de Oro is constructed from lingot bronze and stands seven-feet long. The installation coincides with the kickoff of Art Week New York, an inaugural city-wide initiative taking place from May 5-12 at museums, auction houses and public and private event spaces around the city. That includes the nearby Whitney Museum, which is currently hosting the Whitney Biennial 2022 through September 5. Art Week events are on also now at Christie’s, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and elsewhere around town. The penthouse at Gansevoort Meatpacking, designed by Poliform, doubles as an art gallery. Gansevoort Meatpacking hotel itself is something of an art destination. The property is known for an impressive in-house art collection that includes Banksy’s Flying Copper, Hassan Hajjaj’s Marque 2013 and Richard Hambleon’s Standing Shadow – Blue, all on public view in the lobby and hotel cafe. Upstairs in the penthouse, designed by Italian furniture brand Poliform, the walls are hung with art by Adi Oren, Daniel Mazzone and photographer Mick Rock. Since the pandemic, the Meatpacking District has been prioritizing public art as part of the Open Streets program that saw increased foot traffic and a craving for outdoor art. Most recently, the neighborhood hosted Colombian figurative artist and sculptor Fernando Botero’s Sphinx sculpture in honor of the artist’s 90th birthday. This summer, the neighborhood will see the return of the L.E.A.F. Festival of Flowers, with intricate floral arrangements and booths taking over the streets to mark the official kick off to summer in Meatpacking. El Toro de Oro will remain in place in front of Gansevoort Meatpacking, on the corner of 9th Avenue and 13th Street, through Labor Day 2022. Yep, and that’s no bull. If you are looking for more details, kindly visit XIANGTAI.
What Is the Charging Bull?
The Charging Bull is the official title of the iconic bronze sculpture depicting a bull rearing its horns, created by artist Arturo Di Modica that is located at Bowling Green, near Wall Street in Downtown Manhattan. The 7,100 lb charging bull, a forceful allegory of "bullish" market optimism, has become the de facto symbol of Wall Street and the Financial District, and has become a popular tourist attraction in New York City.
History of the Charging Bull
Arturo Di Modica created the charging bull without the involvement of the city, funding the $360,000 project himself in the aftermath of the 1987 market crash. In Dec. 1989, he brought the charging bull to the city and installed it under the Christmas tree in front of the New York Stock Exchange, as a gift to New York. NYPD briefly impounded the sculpture, but after the public protested, the NYC Parks Department officially installed it in Bowling Green Park a week later.
The charging bull represents the courage and can-do spirit of Americans and New Yorkers in particular. In a melting pot of backgrounds and experiences, Arturo Di Modica installed the bull as an antidote to the causes of the 1987 Wall Street crash: privilege, greed, and excess. He believed the statue’s representation of resilience and courage was a model of integrity.
The artist spent more than two years sculpting the now world-famous Charging Bull at his studio in the Soho district of Manhattan (Crosby Street). The piece was so large and ambitious that Arturo had to cast it in separate bronze pieces and then weld and hand finish them. In its final state, it weighed over three and a half tons.
Other artists have made sculptural statements in the same location including the Fearless Girl statue, depicting a young girl standing defiant in front of the bull. It was installed in honor of International Women's Day in 2017.
A bronze sculpture of a bull is displayed on Broadway in the financial district.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images News
Charging Bull and the 1987 Market Crash
On Oct. 19, 1987, world markets went tumbled down, due to a combination of programming errors and international factors. While the real catalyst for the crash continues to elude analysts, complex interactions between international currencies and markets contributed. Overall, program traders shouldered the majority of the blame; following the brief meltdown several exchanges implemented circuit breaker rules, among other precautions, to slow the impact of such irregularities in the future.
As with other financial crisis scenarios (such as in 2008), some warning signs of excesses preceded the inflection point in 1987. Economic growth had begun to slow and inflation was rearing its head. A strong U.S. dollar was pressuring exports, and valuations were climbing to very high levels. While market participants were aware of these issues, many shrugged off the warning signs and continued to take aggressive risks.
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