Murray’s mosaic murals celebrate the bustling life of city.
Elizabeth Murray with her mural “Blooming”, 1996. Photo: Murray-Holman Family Archive
This summer marks milestone anniversaries for two of Elizabeth Murray’s major MTA Arts & Design / Percent for Art mosaic mural projects.
The first is the 25th anniversary of Blooming (1996) the glass mosaic wall mural at Lexington Avenue-59th Street and the second is the 20th anniversary of Stream (2001) another mosaic mural at 23rd Street-Ely Avenue, Long Island City-Court Square. Reflected in the murals is Murray’s characteristic layering of color in her paintings. Whether it be a yellow cup or red shoe, the color is variegated, dynamically situating it in space as it bends and shapes in a playful dance with the subterranian architecture.
“I’d like the people that walk through there, at least subliminally to feel a kind of beauty and taken up with the colors—feel the shapes if they don’t stop and look at least feel something,” Murray said in an interview broadcast in 2005.
“Having my art in the city in a really very wonderful way, I feel privileged to have been able to do that. When a work is in a museum only certain people who really have an interest, usually. I mean some people wander in and are captivated and see things, but [the museum] is a much more exclusive place. And New York is basically an inclusive city, so I was just so glad to have been able to do that.” [1]
Blooming, 1996, MTA Arts & Design, Lexington Avenue-59th Street. Glass mosaic wall on mezzanine walls connecting the 4, 5, 6, and the N, R, W; medallions on 4, 5 express platform. Photo: Murray-Holman Family Archive
Blooming (1996) takes its title from Bloomingdale's, located above the station at Lexington Avenue-59th Street. Murray viewed the subway as a "dreamy underworld" and also a place to wake up, and her pink trees, red shoes and yellow mugs with steaming coffee succeed in gaining the viewers' attention. Murray says, "I added the stepping shoes and steaming coffee cups, part of the ritual of every morning or evening subway trip." The images are intended to "stimulate thoughts about passage, as does the poetry," which is incorporated into the mural. These include lines from "In dreams begin responsibility," by William B. Yeats, and "Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind,” by Gwendolyn Brooks. “I think that the world’s like ‘the noise and whip of the whirlwind’ […], I just wanted to stop that for a second with those colors and those shapes.” [2]
Test sections of the mosaic for Blooming with Murray’s inscriptions. Courtesy Murray-Holman Family Archive.
Stream, 2001. MTA Arts & Design, 23rd Street-Ely Avenue, Long Island City-Court Square. Glass mosaic on walls in passageway connecting the E, V, to the G. Produced by Travisanutto with Miotto Mosaic Art Studios Inc.
Stream (2001) continues Murray's intent to wield abstraction and figurative forms in her art. Whimsical boots stride over the city skyline paired with mosaic images of both rising suns and heavy rain clouds that float along the walls of the transfer mezzanine. The motion they create alludes to the stream-like passage of commuters through the station.
Photographs of Stream in progress at Miotto Mosaic Art Studios Inc. Images courtesy Fabrizio Travisanutto, Travisanutto Mosaics.
[1] Elizabeth Murray as interviewed in New York Voices, produced by Thirteen WNET. Originally aired 12/16/05. https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-6341p930#at_1133.229877_s
[2] Elizabeth Murray as interviewed in New York Voices, produced by Thirteen WNET. Originally aired 12/16/05.