During one of my travels around Manhattan in New York, I happened to be walking near Albany Street Plaza and saw drawings painted on what I thought was a temporary fence around a construction site.
I stopped to look at this remarkable piece of urban art. It turned out to be the work of artist Chinon Maria.
This work was created to draw attention to the global refugee crisis. The fresco depicts nine portraits of children from various cultures.
On the ribbons that run through all the images, you can see words written by children from all regions of the world, describing their hopes for the future.
The idea and execution of this work amazed me. Thousands of (supposedly "great") paintings have been sitting in museums and storage facilities for decades. But who sees them? Or even suspects their existence? A hundred. Maybe a thousand people.
But this work, painted on a fence since October 2017, has been seen by millions. And made them think.
This is what I love about contemporary art.
No comments:
Post a Comment