Subway Art -- The N/R Union Squre to Times Square.

MTA & The Arts

23^rd

KEITH GODARD

Memories of Twenty-Third Street, 2002

23^rd Street Station along the N/R yellow line is adorned with many small mosaic pieces. Each piece makes up a unique millinery piece and is situated roughly at varying head heights. Goddard, the artist, attempted to capture the spirit of another time (roughly 1880 -1920) when the area around Madison Square was a fashion highlight for the city. This piece allows for a narrative in a few ways. New Yorkers are not only interacting with history, but perhaps each other. One can make a game of attempting to capture those waiting under the hats for a photograph.

28^th Street Station

MARK HADJIPATERAS

City Dwellers (for Costas and Maro), 2002

Like 23^rd Street Station, 28^th Street Station also has large mosaics on its walls. This time however, they have taken on a more surrealistic form. Using mostly primary colors, Hadjipateras, creates robot like figures that dance and play on the walls of 28^th. The narrative here is less clear, and instead open to interpretation. The playful mosaic seem to be a welcome distraction or relief from an otherwise grim subway.

34^th Street Station

ERIC FISCHL

The Garden of Circus Delights, 2001

The theme of mosaics did not stop when I entered into 34^th Street Station and discovered several monstrous pieces by Eric Fischl. The Garden of Circus Delights depicts many different scenes from the circus. The piece pays homage to the circus, which comes the Madison Square Garden directly above the station. I think there is a particularly interesting narrative woven into this piece especially given the drawback to circuses in recent years. Obviously the piece is glorifying the event to some extent.

42^nd Street Station – Times Square

ROY LICHTENSTEIN

Times Square Mural, 2002 (Collage 1990, fabricated 1994)

The last stop of my journey, I arrived at times square. Lichtenstein’s pop art piece, while not a mosaic is still a large wall covering. The piece captures several iconic things about new york, such as the silhouettes of the empire state building, the subway itself, and a large “42.” The style in which the piece it is executed, Lichtenstein’s classic use of dots also pays homage to New York’s history in the pop art moment.