Exhibited September 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008
An expression of the artist’s concept of a “garden.”
The steel-pipe sculpture group by the artist Angel Orensanz, The Garden Before the Snake, is an expression of the artist’s concept of a “garden.” Orensanz has described The Garden “as a utopian horizon for humankind’s endless growth and harmony” with the foil of “the serpent” or the “snake” acting as a representation of the “fragility” and “fragile future” of humankind.
Spanish-born Orensanz is likely best known for his purchase and refurbishment of a circa 1849 unused synagogue on Norfolk Street in New York City’s Lower East Side. Orensanz first used this as his studio, and then in 1992, along with his brother and several other artists, established the Angel Orensanz Foundation. The Foundation now occupies the building.
