Subway station art guide (and top 10 list?)

Thought folks might like this:

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/artwork?station

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/artwork?station

What%26#39;s your top ten station artworks?

I%26#39;d start with (in no particular order)

Prince Street on the R,W

14th Street on the A,C,E

81st St. - Museum of Natural History

42nd street tunnel bet. F and 7

5th Ave. R, N

179th St., F

Canal Street, C,E

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Subway station art guide (and top 10 list?)

QB, thank you SO much for finding that link, it%26#39;s wonderful. My absolute favorite is Tom Otterness%26#39; exhibit at 14th St. (ACE). I purposely go to the opposite end of the train, so I can walk the entire length of that platform. It just makes me smile.

My second is the hats at 23rd Street. A recent poster on this forum included a link to their vacation photos, and they managed to find this station and pose under the hats.

I just got off the #1 at 50th St. about 10 minutes ago, and I do love the Alice in Wonderland mosaic there, as well as the artsy-fartsy mosaics at the Lincoln Center station.

and many many more.

There%26#39;s only one I actively dislike, and that%26#39;s at my very own station, 86/Lex. I think the money couldn%26#39;t have been better spent just washing the old tiles and repainting the ceiling!

Subway station art guide (and top 10 list?)

Woops, I meant to post this link, too, and not the same link twice:

http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/pa/pa_nyct.htm

Click on a subway line colored circle to see the route.

The only ones I remember seeing are the hats (although I thought we were near Canal St?!) I remember our BAG pointing them out and explaining the work as having something to do with how windy that street was - hence people losing their hats frequently. Is this where that came from?

And the one from Spring St, I was sure they were close by each other - I thought at the time that it looked like people trying to walk into the wind.

I%26#39;m ashamed to say we passed through a lot of those stations and didn%26#39;t notice the wonderful artwork. Thanks for posting QB, you%26#39;ve given me something extra to look out for on our trip back.

Bettina, I%26#39;ve just looked through the listing to see which one you were referring to when you mentioned your favourite... the little people %26#39;living underground%26#39;! I remember a trip report that was posted here months ago that featured these little people. I guess thats how I missed other artwork on the subway, I was too busy watching out for the little guys!

Ugh, there are so many I can%26#39;t stand! Especially the random, surreal abstract ones (53rd and 3rd/Lex, 23rd and Ely Ave, 28th Broadway, etc.)

About 7 years ago, I was escorting a visiting friend of a friend to the World Trade Center on my way to work from Brooklyn. We walked the underground passage at the R line into the shopping concourse, and the acquaintance noticed the big reliefs of sailing ships. We both commented on how awful the colors were (vomit yellow, pale blue, burnt sienna, etc.)

This random guy walks up to us and starts talking to us about the artwork, so we%26#39;re just speaking our minds about how muddy and dreary it is. Turns out he was the artist, and he thanked us for our opinions, said we didn%26#39;t have to apologize, etc..

Well, that was our assessment, and he was a very good sport.

QB, thanks for both those great links. What I don%26#39;t get is why some say artist unknown. These aren%26#39;t graffitti.

I always thought Bettina was an UWS%26#39;er.

How about the Bryant Park station at 6th Avenue and 42nd (the station in between TS and GC). I like that one as well as the Alice in Wonderland one.

On a totally separate note, the 4 Canal station has a really bad smell lately.

QB - great post!

My least favorite is the ';F'; stop @ Braodway/Lafayette. Those ';illuminated'; freeform ';cones'; at the base of the main support beams on the promenade above the platforms are never illuminated and always filthy.

My favorites are the mosaics at Sunset Park%26#39;s 36th Street N/R station - very evocative of the WPA murals of the 1930%26#39;s.

LTT: re the illuminating cones at Bway-Lafayette - it took me YEARS to realize this, but they DO pulse and get brighter when a train is coming. (Pre-dates the shrieking electronic whistle sound. I guess it must have been way cool at the time.) But who wants to wait on the mezzanine there for a train?

lddev, I%26#39;m actually an upper east sider with a bad case of upper west side envy!!!

Ange, you%26#39;re right about the hats. The station is under the Flatiron Building, which was famous for the wind currents that caused many a hat to fly away!

blushed