At the corner of 22nd Street and 8th Avenue, a brightly-lit, glass gallery will automatically catch your eye, especially during the evening hours when the night cloaks the city in a deep darkness. From the outside, the life-sized bronze sculptures of Aphrodite, Apollo and Hermes will entice even the harshest art critic to enter and gaze in complete amazement at his surroundings. Sabin Howard’s exhibit, Apollo and Other Bronze Gods, is a culmination of 28 years and 40,000 hours of work. The 20 bronze sculptures also represent the necessary and natural return to the masterful techniques of the Renaissance with a relevance that speaks directly to the modern age.
During my recent visit, Montgomery Taylor, a renowned mythologist and Jungian astrologer, gave a guided lecture tour called “Heroes of the Inner Voyage, The Transcendence of Self,” explaining the mythology behind a few of Howard’s statues. The intricacies of Greek mythology and the intertwining, incestuous behavior of the gods gave the towering figures a new, riveting dimension.
While Howard described the complementing forms of Aphrodite and Apollo with one hand reaching up towards the metaphysical and the other pushing down towards the physical or the massive, intimidating figure of Hermes grasping a serpent in his left hand, Taylor revived my curiosity of Greek mythology, speaking with an unparalleled aptitude and eloquence.
Although each statue stands stationary, Howard ingeniously employs a technique that creates an organic, spiraling energy. Each muscle and limb covering the skeletal foundation, for example, in the Hermes figure twists in a clockwise motion creating a dynamic force that can be felt 360 degrees around the sculpture. Howard hires various models to create individual body parts, which results in a whole piece that fully encapsulates the psychological impact he seeks to present to his audience. The face, chest, abdomen, thighs and calves of Hermes are not of one person. Each is taken from a few select models and then melded together to create a harmonious, static yet moving piece.
Each full-scale sculpture that dominated the gallery space was given special attention by Taylor. But it was a 14-inch crouching figure called Armor, which garnered his most lavish speech. For Howard, the sculpture represents a man guarding his heart and reluctantly reaching out for something just outside his grasp. Taylor, on the other hand, speaks of the Greek God, Narcissus, who scorned all who loved him. As a divine punishment for his prideful rejections, he fell in deep, passionate love with his own reflection only to waste away for fear of leaving this other beautiful creature. Taylor pointed out, in all his wisdom, that living consciously and fully aware of your surroundings is being able to comprehend that your environment is a reflection of your inner being.
For Sabin Howard, art is not about making beautiful things. It is about transformation and elevating personal consciousness. It is about the pure potential of what we can be if we strip away the layers of the collective consciousness imposed by society. Howard takes the traditions of the Renaissance, creating figures rooted in the art of Michelangelo and Rodin, but is still able to imbue his sense of self with each sculpture. Every piece in his exhibit represents a certain phase in his life with the most recent, the open, standing figure of Apollo, as a symbolic gesture of his open heart ready to receive the grace of the universe. We, as connoisseurs and students of high art, fully welcome Howard as he gracefully ushers in this new Renaissance and revitalizes the human spirit.
