New Subway Station Has Public Art That's Rarely Seen: A Gay Couple

[Moondance]

by Associated Press, December 27, 2016

The sight of two men holding hands is far from uncommon, but a mural of two men doing just that is showing up in an unusual place—on the walls of a new subway station in New York City. The Second Avenue Subway station at 72nd Street features a mural of Thor Stockman, left, and his husband, Patrick Kellogg.

 

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/lancasteronline.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/9a/79a97d9e-5193-5121-8bf4-b3ab5a4e2aa9/586207327f14c.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C1384

 

"It was like winning the lottery," Stockman, 60, said of finding out that he and his husband of 3 ½ years were going to be part of artist Vik Muniz's "Perfect Strangers," a series of life-size mosaic portraits of everyday New Yorkers gracing the walls of the new subway station at 72nd Street. The station on the city's long-awaited Second Avenue line is scheduled to open Jan. 1.

 

The depiction of love between gay men is a rarity in public art. Jonathan David Katz, an expert in queer art history, said he could find no other example of a permanent, non-political LGBTQ public artwork in New York City. He mentioned George Segal's "Gay Liberation Monument" near Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 riots that launched the gay rights movement. But that work, featuring two men standing and two women sitting, is expressly commemorative of a political moment.

 

A work like Muniz's is long overdue in a city "ostensibly the epicenter of both the art world and the gay movement," said Katz, director of the doctoral program in visual culture studies at SUNY Buffalo and the former executive coordinator of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University.

 

"What makes it a turning point is it isn't gayness singled out and made the theme. On the contrary, the work naturalizes gayness within the fabric of the city, and in so doing, that's actually an even more powerful message," he said.

 

http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_52/1846181/161227-second-ave-subway-models-1217a_8c5aeea0de7da9a79dc9be819afd9628.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg

Thor Stockman, right, and Patrick Kellogg pose for a portrait in their apartment in New York on Dec. 21, 2016. Seth Wenig / AP

 

Stockman and Kellogg said they took the photo that is the basis for the mosaic by chance more than three years ago; they had gone to Brooklyn to meet up with a friend who was working on the project, and a photographer asked if they wanted to be photographed. It wasn't until earlier this year that they were told their image would be among those going up in the new station, and they were asked to keep it under wraps as the specifics of the art installations hadn't gone public yet.

 

When they were finally able to tell their friends, the reaction was joyous, said Kellogg, 47, and not only for the two of them but because it was the kind of image of a gay couple that's not often seen in pop culture.

 

"Our friends were happy that this is gay representation on the walls of New York City, but even happier that it is gay representation that is not incredibly beautiful and skinny," Kellogg said, as Stockman added, "That it is of average-looking guys like us."

 

Nicholas Baume, public art fund director and chief curator, said, "The work reminds us that it's a common occurrence to see a gay couple holding hands waiting on a subway platform in New York City. It's great that it's no longer a taboo for men to show this kind of everyday affection."

[+ nycman]

Gay or not...I find the piece stunningly beautiful.

 

Thank you for sharing this!

[Hornplatz]

by Associated Press, December 27, 2016

The sight of two men holding hands is far from uncommon, but a mural of two men doing just that is showing up in an unusual place—on the walls of a new subway station in New York City. The Second Avenue Subway station at 72nd Street features a mural of Thor Stockman, left, and his husband, Patrick Kellogg.

 

It's wonderful to see this photo and explanation on this site. What a great happening for this art work to be in such a public space.

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/lancasteronline.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/9a/79a97d9e-5193-5121-8bf4-b3ab5a4e2aa9/586207327f14c.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C1384

 

"It was like winning the lottery," Stockman, 60, said of finding out that he and his husband of 3 ½ years were going to be part of artist Vik Muniz's "Perfect Strangers," a series of life-size mosaic portraits of everyday New Yorkers gracing the walls of the new subway station at 72nd Street. The station on the city's long-awaited Second Avenue line is scheduled to open Jan. 1.

 

The depiction of love between gay men is a rarity in public art. Jonathan David Katz, an expert in queer art history, said he could find no other example of a permanent, non-political LGBTQ public artwork in New York City. He mentioned George Segal's "Gay Liberation Monument" near Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 riots that launched the gay rights movement. But that work, featuring two men standing and two women sitting, is expressly commemorative of a political moment.

 

A work like Muniz's is long overdue in a city "ostensibly the epicenter of both the art world and the gay movement," said Katz, director of the doctoral program in visual culture studies at SUNY Buffalo and the former executive coordinator of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University.

 

"What makes it a turning point is it isn't gayness singled out and made the theme. On the contrary, the work naturalizes gayness within the fabric of the city, and in so doing, that's actually an even more powerful message," he said.

 

http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_52/1846181/161227-second-ave-subway-models-1217a_8c5aeea0de7da9a79dc9be819afd9628.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg

Thor Stockman, right, and Patrick Kellogg pose for a portrait in their apartment in New York on Dec. 21, 2016. Seth Wenig / AP

 

Stockman and Kellogg said they took the photo that is the basis for the mosaic by chance more than three years ago; they had gone to Brooklyn to meet up with a friend who was working on the project, and a photographer asked if they wanted to be photographed. It wasn't until earlier this year that they were told their image would be among those going up in the new station, and they were asked to keep it under wraps as the specifics of the art installations hadn't gone public yet.

 

When they were finally able to tell their friends, the reaction was joyous, said Kellogg, 47, and not only for the two of them but because it was the kind of image of a gay couple that's not often seen in pop culture.

 

"Our friends were happy that this is gay representation on the walls of New York City, but even happier that it is gay representation that is not incredibly beautiful and skinny," Kellogg said, as Stockman added, "That it is of average-looking guys like us."

 

Nicholas Baume, public art fund director and chief curator, said, "The work reminds us that it's a common occurrence to see a gay couple holding hands waiting on a subway platform in New York City. It's great that it's no longer a taboo for men to show this kind of everyday affection."

[+ Cash4Trash]

See Vic Muniz' documentary Waste Land if possible. one of my all time favorites.