What's "Rocking" at Rockefeller Center

It's Christmas in July at Rockefeller Center!  In the very spot reserved for the iconic Christmas Tree during the month of December, summer visitors can marvel at another giant, decorated, living work of art.  Thanks to a unique public/private collaboration, Rockefeller Plaza is now graced by the mammoth topiary creation of American Post-Pop artist Jeff Koons (b. 1955) entitled "Split-Rocker".

Standing 37 feet tall, "Split-Rocker" is a Brobdingnagian combination of a child's rocking horse and a toy dinosaur.  50,000 flowering plants including begonias, geraniums and petunias entirely cover a stainless steel armature that houses its own internal irrigation system.

In this sculpture, Jeff Koons has taken two halves that don't quite match, enlarged them to gigantic proportions and joined them together.  The resulting split clearly defines the two parts although the handles on either side act as a unifying axle.

The work is a riot of color and you can't help but smile when looking at the goofy eye of this wacky hobby horse!

"Split-Rocker" is presented in conjunction with Jeff Koon's first New York retrospective now on view at the Whitney Museum and will continue to blossom until September 12.