The New York Times, June 29, 2008

Skyward-Looking Sculpture Joins Park

By SUSAN HODARA

Yorktown Heights

All last summer, Al Landzberg watched the construction taking place on the southeast corner of the Jack DeVito Veterans Memorial Field and Track here. He saw dead trees and overgrowth cleared and new landscaping replace them. One day in August, he spotted four wooden benches installed in a circular arrangement. That was when he realized that the center of that circle was the perfect location for his sculpture “Big Sky.”

Last month, “Big Sky,” a treelike form constructed of welded aluminum that stands 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide, was installed on the site, on loan for a year from Mr. Landzberg, 78, a sculptor who has lived in Yorktown Heights for 48 years. “Big Sky” is the largest piece in his Tree series, which is the current manifestation of a recurrent theme in his work.

“Going back to the early 1990s,” he said, “I started making outdoor pieces that reach into the sky, as if they could connect with the heavens.” One such piece, “Ascending Arcs,” produced in 1997, is currently on display at City Hall Park in Yonkers.

“Big Sky” was inspired by the fabled lone cypress that juts from rocks along the California coast, a tree Mr. Landzberg saw during a trip he took with his wife in 1979. “I was fascinated by it for many years,” he said. “It holds all the great things: freedom, spiritual reach and survival.”

In the lower section of “Big Sky,” the inside surfaces of the aluminum bands are painted black, “so they carry the imagery of a very old tree,” Mr. Landzberg said. The top is unpainted. “It changes throughout the day with the light,” he said. At night, it is illuminated by in-ground lighting.

The addition to the park, about three-quarters of an acre at the intersection of Veterans Road and Maple Hill Street, was financed by the Yorktown Lions Club and the Jack DeVito Foundation. Anthony DeVito, who is Jack DeVito’s son and president of the Lions Club, described “Big Sky” as “a fine addition to the park — it’s more modern than I had anticipated, but it fits right in.”

Situated along the park’s walking path, the sculpture, Mr. DeVito said, “has a lot of visibility. It has become a focal point.”

A dedication ceremony for “Big Sky” will be held in the park on Sunday, at 6:45 p.m., with presentations by the Yorktown town supervisor, Donald S. Peters; the Parks and Recreation Department superintendent, Jennifer A. Fava; Anthony DeVito; and Mr. Landzberg.

The ceremony will take place during intermission in the first of the town’s annual summer concert series, sponsored by the Yorktown Lions Club. The concert begins at 6 p.m. and features the tribute band Almost Queen.

The Yonkers Home News & Times, May 2, 2008

Al Landzberg, a sculptor with a studio in Yorktown Heights, will install his stainless steel, 13-foot sculpture, Ascending Arcs, at the entrance to Yonkers City Hall Park on May 4. The sculpture will be on view for about one year.

With its vaulting form reaching for the heavens and its burnished texture reflecting sunlight, it's an apt metaphor for Yonkers. This city, the largest in Westchester, is also reaching heights. It has revived its waterfront and is encouraging new development.

Landzberg said that he has a special fondness for Yonkers as one of his earliest solo shows was in the Hudson River Museum. Recently he has had two sculptures on display in the Japanese Gardens at the Hammond Museum in North Salem.

Luis Perelman, director of the Blue Door Artis Association, was instrumental in finding Landzberg and his work. Perelman has been arranging the display of sculptures in City Hall Park on a rotating basis.

For further information, please call 914-965-3397. www.bluedoorart.org.