I happened to find this New York Post video today, and we're in it! Starting at minute 2:12. Pretty neat.


Paul Ramirez Jonas' Key to the City is a participant-based public art project that opened in Times Square last night at 6pm. The project "reinvents the civic honor of bestowing keys on luminaries" with a specially-designed commemorative "master key able to unlock more than 20 sites across New York City's five boroughs." You can't bestow a key on yourself, so be sure to bring a special someone. Or meet a fellow New Yorker in line and make friends. Participation in the ceremony and in Ramirez Jonas' art project is FREE (and magical). Keys will be distributed through a kiosk in Times Square, Broadway & 43rd Street, everyday from June 3 -27, Mon-Fri 2-8, Sat-Sun 12-8.

Through a series of fortuitous events and links, I learned about last night's opening on Twitter -- where else? And so my husband and I lined up at 5:55pm and serpentined our way through the line pretty quickly. At the presentation ceremony, a member of Creative Time officiated. We got goose bumps. It felt like a Times Square art version of our wedding. Today my mood has changed so much for the better. I truly believe Key to the City is a metaphor for unlocking possibilities in one's own life. And as my dad would say, "It's a happening!"

Details from Passing Through, the 115-foot mosaic mural by Al Held (2004) inside the Lexington Avenue-53rd Street station. Each section is an incredibly strong composition on its own; seen altogether it is spectacular. Take the E, V or 6 and come up for a viewing. Enjoy your Friday.

What is it about tile mosaics that make me so happy? This work is one of a pair on the West Side on 50th Street near 11th Avenue, marking two side entryways to a public high school. Pretty great. One panel was so large, I had to take it in two parts.

I must investigate the artist, Fogel, and Crovatto Mosaics further.


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Here is what I found out about Crovatto:

"Crovatto is located in a little town in Italy, and its chief industry is making venetian glass mosaics (too expensive to have done in the States). To make the venetian glass, workers pound out very small pieces of colored glass and put them on individual pieces of mesh. They would then ship the pieces of mesh to us. Installation was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle." [source: thepeoplemover.com]

This Website, about the Travisanutto Giovanni SRL Studio in Italy, while not the source of our Fogel '77, is an interesting one to investigate. Click on Photo Gallery. It seems that Giovanni Travisanutto worked with "Crovatto Mosaics Inc., an affirmed Studio in New York, led by a man of common Friulan roots, Mr. Costante Crovatto."

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I just found the artist: Seymour Fogel (1911-1984), born in New York City, graduated from the National Academy, apprenticed with Diego Rivera, awarded several mural commissions by the WPA in the 30s and 40s, his work included in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum and the Corcoran. Here is a Website about another of his murals in Texas. According to this site, Fogel created 22 major murals in his life "using such media as ethyl silicate, a process he helped pioneer in the 1950's, glass and tile mosaics, oil paint on canvas, and other experimental multi-media compositions."

Night Presence IV

And I am sorry you did. I didn't, however. I saw the Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) retrospective in all its glory at The Jewish Museum before it closed on September 16. The exhibition was just down the street, 92nd Street, that is, from the permanent installation of Night Presence IV (1972, cor-ten steel) on the green median strip of Park Avenue. Nevelson donated the sculpture as a gift to the City of New York. The original model for this work was included in the retrospective.

I have good news for you. The show will travel to the de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco for a brief showing, October 27-January 13. It is a rare opportunity to see so many of Nevelson's pieces under one roof, gathered from private collections and museums around the world. Her works in series have been reassembled as cohesive installations to create a new harmony among the forms. I saw details I never saw before, and understood her work in a new context.

If you are in the neighborhood of 92nd Street and Park Avenue, you must pay a visit to Night Presence IV, and then take trip to San Francisco to complete your study on this great sculptor.

If you stand at Noguchi's Cube at 140 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, and look further downtown, you can see this monumental incredible work in orange and steel. I also wanted to show you what really goes on at the base of the sculpture. This touched me. The sculpture is part of the fabric of the street. It is loved.

The hungry tourist is dazed and can only see the Halal cart.
I think he has failed to notice the monumental orange sculpture entirely.
Maybe after he eats, he will regain consciousness.


The Halal cart at the base of the sculpture serves the people.

And the sculpture's leg serves to protect and cradle the doors of the halal cart
as they provide food to the hungry wandering tourists.
A wonderful symbiotic relationship.
You won't see this detail shot in the art books.

Lower Manhattan has a wonderful collection of public sculpture. I remember years ago seeing a Richard Serra somewhere in that neighborhood, and I'll never forget it. This steel Cube by Isamu Noguchi is worth a closer look. You will find it in front of Brown Brothers Harriman at 140 Broadway.

This sculpture is in a public park nestled in between buildings on 54th Street near Madison Avenue. Go take a look.

In my opinion, like 53rd Street, 54th Street is full of visual treasures. Begin at 1st Avenue and walk west. I will be bringing you more of my own observations more about 54th.

I have been wanting to get a shot of this mosaic on my transfer from the G to the L, but taking this shot means missing the train. And so I did yesterday. Miss my train. But I caught the next.

It has an eco message and an existential message all rolled into one, don't you think? You know where I mean.

I think that most people don't think of 53rd Street as a prime spot for quiet contemplation. But I do. There is something both stirring and calming about that street for me. And when it comes to monumental public art and grand plazas, 53rd Street does provide. I spent a nice time looking at this wonderful Calder stabile from all its interesting angles the other day. I think I might go back today and visit it again.

I think I will call it my birthday sculpture. It was made in the same year I was born.

On a recent trip home from the Guggenheim, transferring from the E to the G, I snapped some detail photos of Frank Olt's work. I love looking into the sparkling gold center every time I pass it. Do you know where I mean?

I had my camera with me while transferring from the G to the L, usually running to catch the train, and 9 times out of 10, missing it. The trains are timed to miss it. So why not just slow down and take in some art? I love this mosaic. You know where I mean.

If you find yourself near the Lever House soon, look up. We saw them painting this new ceiling on Labor Day. I wonder what the rest of the new art installation will look like. The Lever House is located at 390 Park Avenue at 53rd Street. The decor of the restaurant is great too. (I didn't link to the restaurant's website, www.leverhouse.com, because it has loud music, and you might be at work. So take a look at this page of Google images instead. It's quieter.) Plenty of good links in this post. Click and get studying.