A tale of three murals (Friday 15 June 2007)
Keith Haring mural saved
compiled by Rachel Simmons
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| Haring at work on his public project mural for the Boys' Club of New York, Lower East Side, image held here. |
In 1987, pop artist Keith Haring created a mural for the Boys' Club of New York on the Lower East Side. He volunteered to make it for the club, decorating it with images of children reading, swimming, and other activities, and the mural was even featured in a 'Sesame Street' episode. Now twenty-seven years after Haring's death at 31, the building it decorated was headed for demolition and Common Ground, a nonprofit community and housing organization, has been trying to save the mural. After buying the building from the city and forging a partnership with local art dealers to help support costs, they removed the wall from the building by encasing both sides of the wall, which weighs 18k kg, with steel to protect it from collapse and demolishing the building around it. Now in a Newark warehouse, it waits to go on the market, having been unseen since 2003 when the Boys' Club closed. Experts have estimated it could be worth €3 million to €5 million, but as nothing like Haring's mural has ever been on the market before, it's difficult to know.
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| Rivera's mural in its new location in the Museo Mural Diego Rivera, image held here. |
This method of moving murals is similar to one used to move one of Diego Riviera's murals, "Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central" ("A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park"). Rivera's mural is located in Mexico City and before its move, was located in the main dining room of the Alameda Hotel facing Alameda Park, the subject of the mural. But instead of being able to look out over the park and the mural at the same time, three columns blocked the view, until a local construction manager noticed the impairment and proposed a move. According to the construction manager himself, Bob McKenna, he met with some opposition, as no one wished to possibly damage such a "National Treasure," but he eventually orchestrated a successful move, encasing the mural wall in steel trusses, as was done recently with Haring's mural. The Rivera mural is now located at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera in Mexico City.
Possible Basquiat mural discovered
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| A mural discovered in New York's SoHo district could possibly be the work of Jean Michel Basquiat, image held here. |
In New York's SoHo district, a potential Jean Michel Basquiat mural has been discovered within the walls of a building also meant for demolotion, this time with plans to build a condo unit. According to the New York Times, clues to the artist's identity and time period include terms such as "Fab Five," as in the early rapper Freddy, numerous usages of "1980," and Basquiat's own handle "Samo." The piece's disoverer, a Michael Namer, says that there are eventual plans to move the mural, but in the meantime, the discovery has served to influence the design of the new condo unit. The new units are to be designed to "intentionally recall the lofts of SoHo's heyday," said the building's architect Lee Scolnick, for, as he also said, "A piece of SoHo's artistic history is built right into our structure."
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