Venus(mural)
Venusis a twelve-story-highmuralpainting byKnox Martinon the south side ofBayview Correctional Facilityat 19th Street andEleventh AvenueinManhattan,New York City.
Venuswas commissioned byDoris Freedmanof CityWalls (later thePublic Art Fund) in 1970. Knox Martin chose this wall for its unique location, next to Eleventh Avenue (West Side Highway), and visible from theVerrazano-Narrows Bridge,theStatue of Liberty,theNew Jerseyshore of theHudson River,and the West Side Highway itself.[1]
Venuswas restored in 1998 with the support of thePublic Art Fund.A new weather-resistant acrylic paint developed in collaboration with the artist and donated byGolden Artist Colorswas used, which will last at least 75 years.[2]
The prison is a facility of theNew York State Department of Correctional Services.The Department made this statement in 2001:
In 1970, prior to the rejuvenation of the district, Bayview's entire south wall was decorated with a red and pink abstract painting, called "Venus" by artist Knox Martin. The mural, conspicuous for its size and beauty, has often been used on post cards. It is also conspicuous – in a culture that regards large, exposed surface as prime advertising space – for not being a billboard. Not surprisingly, advertisers call from time to time with proposals to lease the wall for commercial messages, but Bayview doesn't want its beautiful Venus covered over with a beer or jeans ad. Besides, it's state property.[3]
Marilyn Kushner of theBrooklyn Museumwrote:
Traditionally the goddess of love and fertility, Venus represents woman, erotic and supple, but it also conveys Knox Martin's love affair with New York. Venus is his love poem to the city where he has always lived, a place that is part of his being. The feminine, curvilinear shapes of the image are in direct contrast with the straight forms that intersect the composition. The overwhelming size of this enormous mural only intensifies the experience of female shapes, the linear aspects of the painted composition, and of the surrounding architecture. In an era when art was reaching out to the masses with pop culture, this huge mural was Knox Martin's way of touching a public that would never venture into an art gallery.[4]
Today,Venusis almost entirely obscured by the neighboring building100 Eleventh Avenue,completed in 2010.[5]
References
[edit]- ^City Walls Press Release
- ^Art in America,July 1998, p.25[1]
- ^A History of Bayview, DOCS TODAY, (November 2001)
- ^Marilyn Kushner,Knox Martin: Early Work,exh. cat. (New York: Janos Gat Gallery, 1997)
- ^NYC The Blog: Visiting Knox Martin's Venus
Further reading
[edit]- "After a 37-Year Run, a Roadside Venus to Be Veiled" by Alex Mindlin, February 11, 2007,The New York Times[2]
- p. 12–13,Mural Paints: Current and Future Formulationsby Mark Golden, 2003, The Getty Conservation Institute[3]
- "Bayview's 10-Story Mural 'Venus' Gets a Facelift", Docs Today (July 1998).