Designed for the 1964-65 World's Fair, The Rocket Thrower stands at 43' (13 m) tall in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, near the Unisphere. The World's Fair Sculpture Committee had selected ten modernist sculptors to create sculptures for the fair, but infamous urban planner Robert Moses favored more traditional sculptors and artist Donald DeLue was commissioned to create a work. DeLue's vision was to depict "the spiritual concept of man's relationship to space and his venturesome spirit backed up by all the powers of his intelligence for the exploration of a new dimension." It was cast in bronze at the Fonda Artista in Italy, and arrived in New York just in time to anchor the Court of the Astronauts.
New York Times art critic John Canaday wrote that it was "the most lamentable monster, making Walt Disney look like Leonardo Da Vinci." Robert Moses consoled DeLue by telling him, "this is the greatest compliment you could have. [Canady] hates everything that is good."
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