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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.
As the 100 years in the making Second Avenue Subway prepares to open it’s first segment on New Year’s Day, 2017, various media outlets not named NightHawkNYC.com were given a sneak-peak preview of the Art that has been, and is being, installed in the stations. I probably was sleeping, anyways.
I haven’t been sleeping, however, when it comes to appreciating the extraordinary “track” record (sorry) of the MTA’s Arts for Transit when it comes to choosing Artists and Art work for the Subway system since the 1980’s. Led by Director Sandra Bloodworth, they’ve done a job that deserves the thanks of all New Yorkers.
You can’t get there from here. Al Held’s “Passing Through,” Mosaic, 2004. Seen at the Lexington Avenue/53rd Street Station in 2015. Just one example of the MTA’s Arts for Transit’s superb choices.
Now, with the likes of Chuck Close, Sarah Sze, Vik Muniz and others, the 4 new stations on the 2nd Avenue Line (actually, an extension of the Q Line), will be aesthetic sites to behold, as you can see here, in the Times, and here. I note Cecily Brown, who occupied a bar stool adjacent to me a few years back, with her beau, is among Close’s portraits, now “immortalized,” or, at least, extremely hard to destroy.
Subway Star in the making, the great Chuck Close, who I ran into at the opening for “Ali Silverstein: To Put on the Edge, a Table,” on October 27 at Albertz Benda, is seen discussing her work with Ms. Silverstein.
While this is great news for my fellow masstransiteers, it leaves the biggest question looming. Actually, the 2 biggest questions-
What about Penn Station?
What about the Port Authority Bus Terminal?
BOTH of these need to be replaced, as I said. NOW! Will they be works of Art to equal the new PATH Station at the World Trade Center, which I called a Cathedral after my opening day visit?
While I laud the choices of Artists, Art Works and Medium1, what the MTA, City, State, and possibly Federal Agencies decides to do about Penn Station (and to a far, far lesser extent MSG, which currently sits on top of it), and the Port Authority are the two biggest urban design questions currently facing Manhattan.
Will we be lauding their decisions as supremely functional works of Art? Or will we continue to loathe every second we have to spend in either station?
I prefer to dream of what the possibilities are because we’ve already lived the nightmare for too long. But, my fears are still running a little bit ahead.
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