Flying Figure with Birds

Paul Manship created several sculptures for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, including the largest sundial in the world, Time and the Fates. Near this piece were placed four statues representing the times of day, Morning, Day, Evening, and Night. In these sculptures, Manship’s flying figures expressed the rush toward a bright future promised to all Americans at the fair. Flying Figure with Birds was a study for Evening, which depicts a calmer moment Manship described as “that time of inactivity before the movement of night begins, and the figure is falling asleep, with the shadows of evening over it.”