The Runner by Richard Gross

This morning I left starting my run until 0700 so as to have some light when I got to the Auckland Domain. Got to the main gates into the Domain from Park Road, and was attracted by the way that the 1936 sculpture by Richard Gross was the focus of lovely soft lighting.

Gross was born in England in 1882 and travelled to South Africa in the early years of the 20th century where he met and married his wife. He also developed a strong antipathy to the racism of the white government, and in 1914 moved to New Zealand where he became a farmer slightly northwest of Auckland city, at Helensville. After the war he moved to live near the centre of Auckland, in Newmarket. Here he set up a studio and eventually his own brass foundry to pursue his real love of sculpture. He was helped in establishing himself by the desire of communities throughout New Zealand to commemorate the Great War monumentally. He was fascinated by the male body, and sculpted nude figures, including one for the Labour leader, Harry Holland. This particular sculpture was as controversial as were many others.

"Despite his mastery of realistic anatomy, Gross always conceived of his work as symbolic of abstract ideals. His fondness for lions expressed the imperial connection, while his fascination with naked or semi-naked figures reaching upward conveyed the attempt of mankind to rise out of material confines and grasp after spiritual ideals. The figures of Endeavour on the Auckland Grammar School memorial, Sacrifice on the Cambridge memorial and the Wellington Will to Peace are of this nature."

As well as the light on the bronze of the sculpture, I like the dark sky (within a minute of taking this I was hit by a brief hail squall). I also like the parallel lines of the athlete and the crane involved in the building of a second car park for the Auckland City Hospital, the top of the old block being just visible below the athlete's foot. The chimney has actually never looked like falling over even without his help.

I have previously blipped this sculpture; in November last year