Walter Kirn went to see it. Per him on X:

Irony off

The new Times Square statue is doing something modern art does well

Make you wonder what art is

And why you think as you do about it

Man was it interesting being out there just now

People are just baffled

The int'l tourists especially

https://x.com/walterkirn/status/1920594139659305412

Pirate Wires weighs in:

A giant, 12-foot-tall bronze statue of an overweight black woman now looms large on the corner of Broadway and 46th Street. In this stunning architectural display, the woman strikes a matter-of-fact, hands-on-the-hips pose — as if to say “I’m on my break” — reminding all passersby that life is meant to be lived leisurely, loudly, like a kween. Who is she, you ask? This shimmering Shaniqua of Manhattan? Apparently, nobody. The statue is an anonymous fictionalized woman constructed to serve as a “contrast” to two Times Square monuments depicting white men (a war hero and Broadway superstar). Indeed, some might quibble that statues should be reserved for people who “did something” or “actually existed.” But my only critique? In the age of Ozempic and MAHA… should we really be constructing giant shrines to diabetes? If Confederate statues were relics of a bygone era that belong in museums, surely Lizzo Anonymous is, too.