Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Cemetery Art Restored In The Bronx

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Bronze sculptures created by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney for the Untermyer Memorial at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx have undergone a restoration. The project, which concluded with a ribbon-cutting on October 3, was supported by the Untermyer family.

Whitney, also buried at Woodlawn, had a significant career as a sculptor, though she is perhaps best known for founding the Whitney Museum of American Art and for her patronage of American art in the early 20th century. Her sculptural practice drew inspiration from Auguste Rodin's expressiveness, the bold realism of Modernism, and ancient forms.

The Untermyer Memorial features three life-size figures by Whitney, elevated within a granite structure that has metal doors opening on three sides. This monument marks the entrance to one of the cemetery's largest plots. Paul Chalfin, known for his work at Miami's Villa Vizcaya, designed the memorial.

“You get this feeling of ascension, because there's a sloped hillside, there's a staircase on one side and you see this tower with a mother figure ascending up to the heavens,” said Meg Ventrudo, executive director of the Woodlawn Conservancy, to The Art Newspaper.

The meaning of Whitney's three figures remains open to interpretation, sometimes seen as representing different stages of a woman's life or the intersection of life and the afterlife. One figure looks down at the viewer, another kneels and reaches toward a third figure who soars upward with arms raised.

The metal doors that conceal or reveal this sculptural group are decorated with flowers on their interior and allegorical scenes on their exterior, including a mother with her baby and a nude couple in an embrace. Ventrudo commented on the work, stating,“It's beautiful and comforting, but sad at the same time. To capture those conflicting emotions is really amazing.”

The restoration work began in 2024. It involved removing overgrown vegetation that had obscured the side entrance and a rough-hewn wall. New plantings were added to align with the original design, incorporating magnolias, holly, and ferns alongside older trees like tulip trees and a large Atlas blue cedar.

A long, stone whispering bench with paw feet was cleaned, and a bronze fountain adorned with griffins was removed for restoration. The bluestone Star of David on which the fountain rests was completely rebuilt after it had fractured over time.

The memorial was commissioned by Samuel Untermyer after the death of his wife, Minnie, in 1924. Samuel Untermyer, a prominent Jewish lawyer, was known as“Hitler's Bitterest Foe” by the press for leading anti-Nazi Germany boycotts in the 1930s. He was also a horticulture enthusiast, and the eclectic gardens at his former estate in Yonkers, New York, have been undergoing restoration since the formation of the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy in 2011. Both Samuel and Minnie were arts patrons.

Whitney had previously worked with Chalfin, who designed her Long Island studio. Chalfin's design for the Untermyer plot is U-shaped, winding through generations of interred family members and along the whispering bench and terraced grassy stairs. The memorial continues to be used by the Untermyer family.

“We're hoping that not only is it an attractive place for our family members to rest, but we're also looking forward to having it be a wonderful greenspace for the people of the Bronx,” said Adrian Untermyer, Samuel's great-great-grandson and a key figure in the restoration partnership between his family and Woodlawn.“You can have a quiet moment or a joyful moment up there.”

The Woodlawn Cemetery houses thousands of monuments, including works by leading artists from the 19th to 21st centuries. The cemetery is currently restoring an open-air Tiffany Studios mosaic and surveying its stained-glass windows. Ventrudo emphasized,“Woodlawn is an outdoor museum, and it's the individuals in our care.”

We previously reported:

Three public art installations honoring immigrant communities by artists Michelle Angela Ortiz, Chat Travieso, and Immanuel Oni opened in New Jersey.

New York City's public spaces showcase diverse art installations this autumn, from oyster mounds on Governors Island to a towering corn cob on the High Line.

Source: The Art Newspaper

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