2 Broadway murals are a pair of untitled decorative mosaic murals by the American artist Lee Krasner completed in 1959 and located at 2 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, New York.[1] Both murals are abstract with colorful planes made from glass tesserae in green, gold, black, and crimson, echoing the dynamism of Krasner's Abstract Expressionist painting style. The larger mural, installed above the Broadway entrance, is 86 feet by 12 feet, while the smaller one is 15 feet by 15 feet and placed above the entrance facing Broad Street. They were commissioned in 1958 by the New York-based real estate company Uris Brothers, which was headquartered at and owned the office building at 2 Broadway. Krasner designed and completed the murals in collaboration with her nephew, Roland Stein.
| 2 Broadway murals | |
|---|---|
 Mural over the Broadway entrance seen at night in May 2023 | |
| Artist | Lee Krasner |
| Year | 1959 |
| Medium | Glass tesserae |
| Movement | Abstract Expressionism |
| Dimensions | 86 ft by 12 ft; 15 ft by 15 ft |
| Location | New York City |
History
editBackground
editBy the 1940s, Lee Krasner had made her mark as one of the few female American abstract artists within the New York School, a group which included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko, among others.[2] However, her achievements were often eclipsed by the fame of Pollock, whom she married in 1945. Following Pollock's untimely death in a drunk driving incident in 1956, her work from the late 1950s to early 1960s evolved into a more expressive and gestural style. Utilizing his studio since 1957, Krasner was able to paint at mural scale.[3]
In 1958, Bob Friedman, who served as vice-president of the New York-based real estate company Uris Brothers, commissioned Lee Krasner to create a pair of mosaic murals at the company's corporate headquarters located at 2 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.[4] Friedman had previously seen and admired a mosaic table at Krasner's home, which she had executed in 1947 using tesserae left over from her husband Jackson Pollock's work at the Works Progress Administration. He was also familiar with some of the large-scale murals Lee Krasner made for the WPA in the 1940s.[5]: 107 [4]
Commission
editThe office building at 2 Broadway was designed by Emery Roth & Sons and constructed between 1958 and 1959. Krasner designed the murals in collaboration with her nephew, Roland Stein, and the works were installed in 1959.[6]: 16 Both murals are abstract, depicting an arrangement of colorful planes in green, gold, black, and crimson hues made using glass tesserae.[7] Due to union laws, Krasner was not allowed to work with the material directly and had to instruct workmen to break the glass and then arrange it on the surface of each mural.[5]: 107 According to the American art historian Barbara Rose, working on the collage maquettes in preparation for the murals provided Krasner "with a means of translating her winged, floral, and organic forms into monumental abstractions on a public scale".[8]
The larger work, measuring 86 feet by 12 feet, was installed above the entryway facing Broadway while the smaller one, measuring 15 feet by 15 feet, faces the Broad Street entrance.[9] The interjecting colorful planes of the mural evoked the dynamic visual compositions of Lee Krasner's 1950s painting practice.[1] Scholar Emily Warner describes the work as "an explosion of swooping forms, splintered tiles, and craggy edges".[10] The work's composition has been compared to Krasner's 1955 painting Bald Eagle where "cluster of irregular swatches" are seen distributed "rhythmically" across the space of the composition.[11]: 519 According to art historian Marcia Tucker, the front mural at 2 Broadway "remains one of the few successful, architecturally appropriate exterior wall pieces to have been done on this scale".[6]: 16
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Wichmann, Natalie (2019-12-19). "Lee Krasner's New York City IV: Giant mosaic on Broadway". Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
- ^ Magazine, Smithsonian; Solly, Meilan. "Revisiting the Artistic Legacy of Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock's Wife". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
- ^ Farago, Jason (2019-04-19). "Lee Krasner, Hiding in Plain Sight". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
- ^ a b Levin, Gail (2011). Lee Krasner: A Biography. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company. pp. 329–330. ISBN 978-0-06-184527-7.
- ^ a b Hobbs, Robert Carleton (1993). Lee Krasner. Modern Masters. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 978-1-55859-283-4.
- ^ a b Tucker, Marcia (1973). Lee Krasner: Large Paintings. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art. LCCN 73-88962.
- ^ Williams, Reba White (2001). "The Prints of Lee Krasner". Print Quarterly. Vol. 18, no. 4. pp. 396–413. ISSN 0265-8305. JSTOR 41826272.
- ^ Rose, Barbara (1983). Lee Krasner: A Retrospective. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-87070-415-4.
- ^ Wasserman, Emily (March 1968). "Lee Krasner in Mid-Career". Artforum. 6 (7): 38–43.
- ^ Warner, Emily. "Ornament and Obsolescence: Lee Krasner's Mosaics for Wall Street". The Courtauld Institute of Art. London: University of London. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
- ^ Naylor, Colin, ed. (1989). Contemporary Artists. London: St. James Press. ISBN 978-0-912289-96-0.