The creator of the iconic Wall Street “Charging Bull” is snorting mad over the appearance of the bull’s new companion, artist Kristen Visbal’s bronze “Fearless Girl” statue. 76-year-old Arturo di Modica, the artist who made the iconic sculpture that, like its young challenger, was installed in the wee hours, says the girl is “an advertising trick,” reports MarketWatch.
Di Modica sculpted the 7,100-pound bronze bull and installed it without permission as a gift to the city in 1989, intending for it to symbolize virilty after the 1987 stock-market crash had robbed the Street of some of its thunder. The defiant young girl in high tops was installed by international asset management company State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) just ahead of International Women’s Day on March 7 to bring attention to the need for more women on corporate boards–and for more female business leaders in general, as 6sqft previously reported.
The septuagenarian Sicilian immigrant said “Women, girls, that’s great, but that’s not what that (my sculpture) is. I put it there for art. My bull is a symbol for America. My bull is a symbol of prosperity and for strength.” Though Di Modica has profited from the licensing (he owns the copyright) of New York’s second most-popular sculptural attraction after the Statue of Liberty, he feels it’s not fair to compare his artistic contribution to the finance company’s “corporate marketing effort.” Di Modica’s main point is that the 50-inch girl changes the context of the bull, recasting it as an oppressor.
The new statue’s temporary permit expires on April 2, but there is a movement afoot to make it permanent; online petitions and local elected officials are at work on a campaign to keep the “Fearless Girl,” which now has its own Twitter page and hashtag, in place.