Ideogram

To begin our reflection on works of art in our new exhibition, We Remember: Stories from the September 11 Memorial and Museum, we turn to the most coveted and profound works that connect us to those lost in the World Trade Center attack of 2001. James Rosati’s (1911-1988) monumental work, Ideogram, stood on the Austin J. Tobin Plaza at the foot of the World Trade Center.

Purported to be the most photographed artwork in the entire World Trade Center complex, Ideogram’s striking geometry and reflective stainless-steel surface made it a favorite for fashion shoots, commercial advertisements, and tourist photography for decades.

Fabricated in 1967, our exhibited work, Maquette for Ideogram, is the unique stainless-steel maquette that served as the precise spatial and structural prototype that Rosati later scaled up for the plaza installation.

The model was publicly exhibited at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University during Rosati’s 1969 solo retrospective. The Port Authority Public Art Advisory Committee saw the piece and recognized that its reflective planes, soaring diagonals, and open structural voids would serve as an ideal visual counterpoint to the World Trade Center’s hyper-vertical 1,100-foot towers.

Upon the collapse of the towers on September 11, 2001, the nearly 24-foot-tall monumental version of Ideogram was completely destroyed. Because its structural elements were constructed entirely of steel beams, the destroyed fragments were indistinguishable from the tons of structural steel rubble at Ground Zero, and no portion of the original artwork was ever recovered.

The maquette, now on display in We Remember, remains the point of primary reference for Rosati’s original vision of the piece.

This exhibition is presented by the Bielfeldt Foundation.

Sponsored by Advanced Medical Transport, RLI, Mike and Lori Gudat, Patricia and Anthony Cutilletta, Sally Snyder, Lisa and Bob Gates, Craig Kliethermes, John and Julia Chan, Sid P. Ruckriegel and Andrew A. Rand Charitable Foundation, America 250 donors, Visionary Society.