We thought that this would be a good day to take a look at the art works in and around the Rockefeller Centre. Having decided to go up the Empire State Building we chose not to go up to the centre's observation deck. However we did take a look at Joie - Crystal Waterfall, a Swarovski installation, in the stairwell. I'm not generally keen on 'sparkly' things but I do like these large hanging installations, especially when viewed from below.
This superb glass wall is at the end of the underground shopping mall. Normally the area behind it would be the sunken garden and outdoor cafe but in the winter it becomes the ice rink.
The highlight of the sunken garden/ice rink is the golden statue of Prometheus by American sculptor Paul Manship. On either side of the steps leading down to this are male and female companion pieces in bronze.
Above Prometheus is the main entrance to the Rockefeller Centre and 'Wisdom' the famous relief by Lee Laurie. The inscription reads; Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the Stability of thy Times, which is a wonderful thought.
The atrium to the International building houses a ten panel sculpture by Michio Ihara of goldplated leaves on vertical stainless steel cables which shimmer in their bottom lit recesses. This vast work creates a magnificent entrance. 
The entrance way to another building houses the mosaic'Intelligence Awakening Mankind' by Barry Faulkner, created from over a million hand-cut glass tiles. The central area (shown above) shows Thought and his messengers Written Words and Spoken Words sending out wisdom to the people. At either end of the piece Ignorance and Poverty can be seen falling into the flames of hell.
The shop Anthropologie had themed its window decorations on snow scenes which had been created in white paper. My favourite was this one with the back-lit window, although I was also very taken with one that had deep layers of 'snow' - layers of paper being very relevant to my current research on archives. 
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