Wednesday, February 02, 2005
New York Subway Art, Identified
Sure, you know enough to look smart in front of your friends by telling them that those strange little people and big alligators living in the 8th Ave. - 14th St. subway station were made by a pretty well known artist named Tom Otterness. (Whether or not you want to critique the work with adjectives such as "cute" and "sell-out" is up to you.)
But what about those ambiguous but cool image and text mosaics at the Metropolitan Avenue station on the G line in Brooklyn? And what's up, anyway, with those wacky red frames strewn around the Union Square station?
The MTA has made it easy for you to become a bona fide subway art know-it-all.
They have a section on their website that documents and provides some pedagogical material on all art in the subways (as well as in other MTA venues). Some entries are better than others, but if you've ever wondered where Jacob Lawrence's posthumously realized mosaic depicting life in the New York City subway is, this site is worth exploring.
