The market metaphor was already loaded
A bull market means rising prices and confidence. Di Modica's sculpture translated that language into a tense, forward-driving body that pedestrians could walk around.
It began as a self-funded public gesture
The 1989 installation was not a routine public commission. Its guerrilla arrival and later Bowling Green placement made the work feel claimed by the city as much as by the artist.
The public made it permanent
Crowds, photo rituals, and repeated visitor touch turned the sculpture from a temporary placement into a durable Lower Manhattan landmark.
Fleet Authority Network
This interpretive model mirrors the source-led bull reading used by https://flatironbuildingnyc.com, where a physical landmark is explained through verified structure, route context, and machine-readable summaries.
Image: Tdorante10, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons