The Art of the Second Avenue Subway (86th St Station)

“The richness of the city is all the various cultures coming together, and the richness of my art will be to simultaneously let people in on how many ways there are to build an image.” – Chuck Close.

Chuck Close is an American painter, artist, and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits. He was commissioned by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts for Transit to create a permanent installation for the 86th Street and Second Avenue station which had its grand opening on January 1, 2017 (you can read my first post on Second Avenue subway line here to learn more about its history).

Instead of painting portraits, Mr. Close created 12 large-scale portraits based on his own portrait paintings and prints. He applied different painting techniques to 10 portraits made of mosaic and two made with ceramic tile.

“My work has always had a mosaiclike quality to it,” Mr. Close mentioned In his interview with NY Times. “So it’s not such a stretch. The idea is to reflect the riding population: old people, young people, people of color, Asians. I’m going to do as many as 12 separate mosaics, mainly from pictures of artists I’ve taken over the years.”

With the exception of John Cage, Mr. Close explained, most people will probably not recognize who’s who. (There is a portrait of a baby, perhaps a future artist, based on a photograph of his niece Emma.) Each of the portraits is 10 feet high, and, all told, more than 1,000 square feet is dedicated to the artwork.

I’ve visited the station last week and took some photos:

Mosaic portrait of the composer Philip Glass

Escalator at the 86th Street Station

Escalator at the 86th Street Station

Mosaic portrait of the artist Pozsi B. Kolor

Mosaic portrait of the artist Sienna Shields

Mosaic portrait of the artist Sienna Shields

86th Street Station

Mosaic portrait of the painter Alex Katz

Mosaic portrait of the painter Cecily Brown

Mosaic portrait of the artist Kara Walker

Mosaic portrait of the artist Kara Walker

86th Street Station

One of two Chuck Close self-portraits at the 86th Street station

One of two Chuck Close self-portraits at the 86th Street station

86th Street Station

Mosaic portrait of the musician Lou Reed

Mosaic portrait of the musician Lou Reed

86th Street Station

Mosaic portrait of the artist Zhang Huan

One of two Chuck Close self-portraits at the 86th Street station

One of two Chuck Close self-portraits at the 86th Street station

Portrait of a baby, perhaps a future artist, based on a photograph of Mr. Close’s niece Emma

Chuck Close. Subway Portraits. 2017

Pretty impressive to say the least. “I’m trying to make each one different,” Mr. Close said. “Even though they are made of thousands of chunks of glass, there’s a rhythm and a handwriting to it that is similar to painting.”

I’ll try to visit the 96th Street Station in the next few weeks and see what is good there. While I do that, you can read my post about 72nd Street Station art here.

Thanks for stopping by and see you soon!