35 Times, Toby Buonagurio New York – Subway art 10

MTA Times Square Station Art

These are like spooky Tiffany windows, maybe 16 inches square, lit on the inside, improvisations on how to have New York-style fun while actually in New York. They are glazed ceramic, brightly coloured, full of chunky figures, objects, words, and letters associated with a New Years Eve bash. Jazzy. Clown-faced. Their placement mimics the rhythm of speeding passers-by. Mostly located around the Shuttle and BMT line mezzanines.

There are five other installations in this station, one each by Jacob Lawrence, Roy Lichenstein, Blackford and Fisher, Jack Beal, and Jane Dickson, and it is a challenge to find them all.

I will leave it to readers to decide what elements of this street art sideshow surprise, delight, disgust, or whatever. New York is still recovering from the dents and bangs of the 1970s, the impact on the arts community of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, and the COVID pandemic of the 2020s. Spending money is what NYC does best, and that is bettered only by what the money buys. This is an example.