The first commission Jose Maria Sert received for Rockefeller Center was to paint four murals to decorate the ends of the elevator banks.

The first commission Jose Maria Sert received for Rockefeller Center was to paint four murals to decorate the ends of the elevator banks.

These six playful plaques under the marquee on the granite wall are both architectural decorations and introductions to the stage events ahead.

Born in Barcelona, Sert spent his adult life living in Paris and was internationally famous as a mural painter.

Three gilded passant-gardant lions (passant means walking; gardant means looking out of the shield) reinforce the presence of the building’s primary tenant, the British monarchy.

Rockefeller Center in partnership with Art Production Fund will present a series of public art pop ups throughout the center. Taking place in unique and unexpected locations, the multidisciplinary program will showcase installations inspired by the New York City landscape and contemporary life.

These four allegorical stone carvings express ideal aspects of the development of modern civilization: Genius Seizing the Light of the Sun (the development of electricity and communications), The Conquest of Space and Gifts of Earth to Mankind (an acknowledgement of spirituality), and The Spirit of Progress (a reference to the bond between capitalism and the unions during the building of the Center).

Atlas is a successful collaboration between two talented artists, Lee Lawrie, who conceived the idea and designed the figure, and Rene Chambellan, who modeled the heroic-sized statue from his sketch.

Sir Frank Brangwyn’s four South Corridor murals were commissioned to complement the murals by Jose Maria Sert in the north corridor, although most observers agree this aesthetic bond wasn’t achieved.

In winter the Channel Gardens fountains are turned off and the Center is decorated for the Christmas holidays.

These two panels are part of the three pieces Lee Lawrie created as an appeal for world peace.

Located above the glass bas-relief Youth Leading Industry, this large polychrome-painted limestone cartouche shows two monumental-sized figures symbolizing the basic trades of the nation.

The first commission Jose Maria Sert received for Rockefeller Center was to paint four murals to decorate the ends of the elevator banks.

Painted three years after Fraternity of Men, this work presents a far more pessimistic view of the world.

This polychrome-painted stone carving depicts a messenger soaring from the clouds, emptying an overflowing horn onto the earth.

These three large stylized decorative plaques, placed high up on the south façade of Radio City Music Hall, represent the theater’s main activities.

Dancing Figure, an over-life-size casting of a nude female figure resting on one knee, is a study of the rounded, full shapes and simplified forms that characterize Zorach’s work.

Defying easy categorization, this unconventional portrait of Eve is depicted from an evolutionary view.

Radio City Music Hall designer Donald Deskey commissioned Chambellan, a highly talented architectural modeler and sculptor, to provide designs for the elevator doors, with the belief that every small detail and decorative element would help create the right atmosphere of escape and fantasy.

Amongst the greenery of the Channel Gardens are six fountainhead sculptures gushing broad streams of water.

Leo Lentelli’s allegorical carvings of Asia, Europe, Africa and The Americas not only reflect the range of international businesses within the building, but also communicate the vastness and history of the continents

These stone carvings represent four eras in Italy’s history. They begin with The Roman Period, represented by the letters S.P.Q.R. (“The Senate and People of Rome”) and a Roman warrior.

Sert expresses an optimistic view in this mural, painted at a time when Europe was on the verge of war.

Frieze Sculpture is a major public art initiative, presented at Rockefeller Center in partnership with Frieze New York and Tishman Speyer.

Perched above the entrance of La Maison Francaise, this massive, majestic figure is symbolic of French freedom as she proclaims Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) to the world.

This cast aluminum statue is one of three nudes that, amazingly, created a controversy when it was first installed.

The nine gilded allegorical figures on this large bronze panel represent industries that were once considered major sources of income for the British.

These two heroic-sized carvings represent the commercial activities of industry and agriculture, depicting universal activities, not individuals.

This mosaic of small glass tiles (tesserae) is composed of over one million glass tiles in two hundred and fifty colors, each hand-cut and hand-set.

During the Second World War, a bas-relief with an undesirable fascist theme was removed from the prominent 626 Fifth Avenue entrance. Twenty years later, in 1965, a group of prominent Italian businessmen presented Rockefeller Center with this plaque as a symbol of Italy and Italian-Americans.

Nelson Rockefeller, a great patron of modern art, commissioned this sculpture in 1978 to update and enhance the lobby area of the International Building.

Manship created these heroic-sized figures in 1933 to flank the golden Titan Prometheus.

This was the first work of art commissioned for Rockefeller Center and ultimately set the stage for its renowned Art Deco style.

For this series of carvings, Chambellan borrowed motifs from the coats of arms of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland—the four countries that make up the British Isles.

Soaring above the entrance to 50 Rockefeller Plaza, this dynamic plaque symbolizes the business of the building’s former tenant, the Associated Press.

Symbols from four significant events in France’s history illustrate the themes of A Pageant of French History.

This decorative, enigmatic work, on display in the ladies room, stylistically moves away from Art Deco and toward Surrealism, where dreams and unreality were key themes.

A true icon of the Art Deco style, this bas-relief is allegorical, has bold and flat geometric shapes, strong colors and stylized forms, and, above all, is decorative.

Prometheus is said to be the best-known sculpture in Rockefeller Center and the most photographed monumental sculpture in all of NYC.

A native New Yorker, Leo Friedlander studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and Paris and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1913.

The figure of Saint Francis symbolizes love of self and neighbor.

Pure Art Deco, this panel features an allegorical gilded female figure sowing seeds in the form of a stylized fleur-de-lis, the symbolic flower of France.

Sound and Light are located to the left and right sides of Lawrie’s celebrated Wisdom.

As Sert’s submission for the main-lobby mural, American Progress, did not wrap the corners of the wall, he was asked to provide two additional murals for these walls.

This panel is one unit of the three-part work Lee Lawrie created as an appeal for world peace.

A native New Yorker, Leo Friedlander studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and Paris and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1913.

This enormous mural sweeps up the staircase and overlooks spectacular grand foyer (a space created by the architect Edward Durrell Stone).

With major commercial air travel taking off after World War II, Dean Cornwell was commissioned to create a mural depicting the advances of transportation.

The companion work to the large panel titled Italia, this bas-relief is a poignant work depicting a weary barefoot mother and her naked child, the fundamental nature of poverty.

John D. Rockefeller, the developer of the Center, was a reserved man who advocated temperance, yet this carving portrays the “joy” of life as wine.

When Bouche was commissioned to paint a series of vignettes to represent various theatrical scenes for the walls of the main lounge, he chose five eras as the focus for his lively narrative.

The Story of Mankind is a massive carved limestone screen divided into fifteen small rectangular spaces that Lawrie termed “hieroglyphs”.

This dramatic ceiling mural depicts heroic-sized, Titans who symbolize the three aspects of time: Past, Present and Future.

After immigrating to America, Gaston Lachaise abandoned his European academic training and began his own artistic explorations, favoring celebrations of the human body.

The Roman god Mercury has been used to symbolize Britain’s worldwide strength in the 1930s, and here the gilded figure is depicted on a mission, rapidly flying over blue-green waves.

An Art Deco icon, Wisdom famously looms over the entrance to the main building of Rockefeller Center and can be seen from Fifth Avenue.

This bas-relief was cast to capture the energy of a modern future emerging in Italy.