New York sculptor Jonathan Silver was known for his figurative sculptures, classical forms infused with an intensely modern sense of emotion. Silver created exaggerated, fragmented figures that were greatly influenced by the sculpture of Rodin and by Giacometti, whose “stick” men possess a similar elemental and primitive force. The abstract, headless torso in the Garden depicts an Amazon,a member of the race of mythological Greek warrior women who excluded men from their society. The name Amazon itself is Greek for “breastless,” since, according to legend, it was the practice of these women archers to burn off their right breasts in order to pull back their bows more effectively. Never, however, was this disfiguration depicted in the ancient images of the beautiful warriors on temple friezes and vases. Silver’s Amazon, by contrast, has been wounded. Although proud in stature, the roughened, flayed surfaces of her skin suggest the frightening mutilation of myth and the ravages earned from a life of battle.