Mosaically Historic
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s largest and most famous museums holding a myriad of historical, artistic, and scientific displays. Many tourists and native New Yorkers visit the museum everyday and the most popular mode of transportation they use to get there is the subway. The B and C lines on the subway bring customers to the 81st Street-American Museum of Natural History stop which is right by the entrance to the museum.
In the 81st Street train station, there is a large piece of public art called For Want of a Nail that fills the walls with vibrant mosaics to reflect the different disciplines of the museum. The title refers to an old proverb meaning that every little thing is connected in some way. The artists, who were commissioned by the MTA, created this masterpiece to highlight the vast and diverse nature of the museum and welcome visitors with the mosaics. There are large glass and ceramic mosaics of marine life, land animals, and prehistoric life “swimming” or “walking” along the walls. They used dull colored tiles to reflect the extinct animals and brightly colored ones for the living animals. There are also bronze and granite tiles on the floor of more marine life, as if to appear that they are swimming underwater. These animals all connect to represent what the museum has to offer and what the world contains.
Though the museum was founded in 1869, the art was created in 2000 and I hope that it lasts for as long as the museum is standing. This is one of my favorite pieces of subway art and it never fails to make me smile once I step out of the train to visit the museum or the rest of the city. The beauty and the details of the mosaics always amaze and excite me and I’m sure they do the same for all children and adults. It makes the journey to the museum much more lively.
THis is one of my favorites too! And I especially like that while mosaic is meant to be bright and shiny, the artist managed to exploit that to point out the animals that are extinct.