Art Project Infuses Subway with Jolt of Colors
Monday, September 14, 2009 3:25 PM
The thousands of commuters who pass through one of the busiest subway stations in New York will now be greeted with a dizzying array of bold colors splashed against a wall - one of the last commissioned pieces by the late Sol LeWitt, an American conceptual artist.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority introduced the wall art to the public last week. It is a huge permanent installation of porcelain tile whose deeply intense colors of blue, green, yellow, orange, purple and red could only be created by artisans in Madrid, reports the New York Times.
Entitled "Whirls and Twirls," the piece faces a double-wide stairway and landing at 60th Street. The 250 porcelain tiles cover a space that is 53 feet wide and 11 feet high. The photo posted here appeared in the NYT and was taken by Angel Franco.
The project started five years ago as part of the station's $108 million makeover. LeWitt was able to choose any location in the station for his artwork.
The artist, who died two years ago, will have two more of his works installed later this year. They will be circular floor pieces with compass-rose designs.
Here at METRO, we are working on station art on the light-rail lines we're building. Nineteen of 22 winning artists have been assigned stations where their art will appear. The artists were selected from more than 250 applicants, including international ones. We wanted our station art to be created mostly by local artists - and 86 percent of the artists are local.
Funding and budgets still need to be finalized before the remaining three artists are assigned stations. Our goal is to have art grace every station we're building.
Click here to read more about our Arts in Transit program.