Artist/Maker
Richard Haas
(born 1936)
Cityscape (South View, World Trade Center)
1982
Oil on canvas
13 ft. 3 in. × 68 1/2 in. (4 m 3.9 cm × 174 cm)
Gift of Altria Corporate Services, Inc.
2008.16.5j
These paintings are from a larger mural cycle executed in 1982 for the Philip Morris Company, now known as Altria. The series comprises 22 paintings, totaling nearly 200 running feet. It was commissioned for the basement-level corporate dining room in the company’s building at Park Avenue and 42nd Street. Installed around the entire perimeter of the dining room, the murals offered employees a trompe l’oeil, panoramic view of Manhattan that was identical to the one that could be seen from the executive suites on the 26th floor of the building. Haas worked from photographs that he made from the roof of the building adjacent to the Philip Morris building, ensuring a precise view of the city skyline. The canvases in this group feature part of the southern view from the Philip Morris building, including the World Trade Center Towers, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building. They belong to the 11-part section of the mural that depicts the entire width of the island and part of Brooklyn.
As a suite, this series demonstrates the witty use of architectural space that is typical of the artist’s work. In the original windowless basement setting for Cityscape, Haas offered diners a bright panorama of the city. Other works by Haas include similarly unexpected views. A mural at 112 Prince Street depicts windows and architectural details on a formerly blank wall, and his work on the Con Edison substation at Peck Slip includes illusionistic buildings and a “view” of the Brooklyn Bridge.
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
