If you're in or near New York City this summer, I'd recommend you travel to the upper part of Museum Mile --1220 5th Avenue. That's the address of the Museum of the City of New York. On its third floor is the exhibit "Another Wonderland: Abram Champanier's Alice Mural" that closes on September 27th.
The artist was a Jewish immigrant from what was part of Russia in 1896 but then became part of Poland. He changed his last name from Sherschewitz or Szerszewicz to a consistent sound but not consistent spelling. Before he adopted the French-spelling Champanier surname in the 1930s, he used Shampanier, a name that appears on his earlier paintings.
Champanier carried out several commissions for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), though he is probably most celebrated for this whimsical set of 16 murals between 1938 and 1940. The murals graced the hospital ward for 40 years.
However, in 1978, the hospital had lost accreditation, and in 1981 it was slated for a complete gut renovation. The murals would have been destroyed as a result if not for the fact that they had come to the attention of Andrew S. Dolkart of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
He recollected that even in the empty ward, the panels stood out as “witty and fun and bright," and certainly worth saving. In the course of four days in August 1981 a group of volunteers went in and salvaged 15 of the murals that then had to be painstakingly restored over many years. Now you can see the vibrant colors in living color in-person at this exhibit.
My favorite is probably the library scene. Your favorite may be one of the ones that celebrates the subway, the Stature of Liberty, or whatever part of 1930s New York city you consider most iconic.
Another iconic part of NYC that you shouldn't miss is right across the street from the museum. It's the most beautiful part of Central Park: The Conservatory Garden. The Untermyer Fountain is one of the fountains built around sculptures in this garden. This memorial to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Untermyer --who also built the lovely gardens in Yonkers -- is a bronze cast of Walter Schott's Three Dancing Maidens.
You can see several more photos I've taken of this delightful garden here. Related:
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