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Retired Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Denise Shaw 2001 Cow Parade Ceramic Figurine 9180
This painted sculpture was famous for its thematically prescient message in the form of a tear rolling down the bovine’s cheek. Inside this tear on the actual statue was painted the Trade Towers, one year before the apocalypse that changed the world. She grazed in the park at Columbus Circle, Manhattan in 2000 and was featured on CNN. This is a well maintained pre owned 6 inch by 2.5 inch exact replica of the life size original created by Westland Giftware in 2001. There is no original box or hang tag for this cow. Please note, this Westland miniature reproduction of Denise Shaw's art installation does not feature the Twin Towers reflected in the teardrop.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, artist Denise Shaw and her husband heard the first plane flying over their loft just seconds before it hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Like many others, Denise's life and her art would be changed and inspired by that fateful day.
Cow Parade took place between 1999 and 2007, and was the world's largest public art event. Denise Shaw, artist, writer, film maker, and animal advocate submitted a design to the New York selection committee for CowParade New York that would take place in 2000. Using the guidelines that the cow could be anything the artist wanted it to be as long as there was some reference to New York City, Denise chose the World Trade Towers. Living and working in Soho, the Trade Towers were always a point of reference for Denise as a resident of lower Manhattan.
For no obvious reason, Denise submitted a design of a sad cow, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Why she would choose to design a sad cow is unknown. Why she would choose to paint a tear on the cow's face with the Trade Towers in that tear is also unknown...a premonition? The cow was on exhibit in front of Columbus Circle for three months and was auctioned at Sothebys with all proceeds going to local charities, along with 449 other cows from CowParade New York. Who could ever have imagined that the world would be wearing that tear just a year later?
It wasn't until November of 2007 that Denise would learn who bought the cow with its haunting vision when Denise received a call from the curator of The Fenimore Cooper Museum in Cooperstown New York. The cow was in one of their restoration facilities. Jane Forbes Clark, heiress to Singer Sewing Machine (now Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation), and owner of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, had purchased Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. For seven years Denise's cow had been on the lawn of Ms. Clark's mansion and was in desperate need of restoration. Ms. Clark agreed to deliver the cow to Manhattan, to give Denise two months to restore it and agreed to Denise's request that an automotive varnish be put on the cow upon its return to Cooperstown. Ms. Clark's only requirement was that Denise keep the original tear with the Trade Towers in it.
CowParade is the largest and most successful public art event in the world. CowParade events have been staged in 79 cities worldwide since 1999 including Chicago (1999), New York City (2000), London (2002), Tokyo (2003), and Brussels (2003). Dublin (2003), Prague (2004), and Stockholm (2004), Mexico City (2005), Sao Paulo (2005), Buenos Aires (2006), Boston (2006) Paris (2006), Milan (2007), Taipei (2009), Rio (2011), North Carolina (2013), Hong Kong (2013), Detroit (2104), Cartagena (2015). So the obvious question is why cows? Simply answered, the cow is a universally beloved animal. The cow represents different things to different people around the world, she’s sacred, she’s historical, the common feeling is one of affection. There is something magical about the cow that transcends throughout the world. Incredibly, over 2500 hundred Cows have been created worldwide, but no two are alike.
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