As a new resident of New York City, I love to take advantage of all that Manhattan has to offer. On every third block of the city is a piece of public art that grabs my attention and catches my eye, but Keith Haring’s statue located at 51 Astor Place was one that literally stopped me in my tracks when I passed by it. What Haring designed is a sculpture called “Self Portrait.” It is a 3-dimensional, green, dancing stick-figure with the dimensions of 48 x 27 1/2 x 33 inches, so it cannot be missed when walking down the street. The stick figure is standing on one foot, looking as though it is mid-jump. One of the statue’s hands is on its waist, while the other one is in the air. Lastly, it is a 360 degree work of art, so it can be viewed and taken in from all sides.

Perhaps this sculpture is extremely intriguing because of its strategic placement. Since it is downtown on Third Avenue, one of the busiest streets in New York City, thousands of people walk by it every day. After observing it for a few minutes, I feel that this statue has true potential to bring joy to anyone who passes by it, like it did for me. It looks as though this green stick-figure is just another person who finds himself in this bustling part of the city. However unlike all the other active participants of the area, this person looks like he is taking a second to truly enjoy the moment, encouraging others to do the same. Therefore this environment truly enhances the work of art because it fits perfectly as a piece of street art, rather than in a museum or gallery. It has the real ability to bring smiles to many busy people’s faces.

After I finished at 51 Astor Place, I continued down Third Avenue and found myself at the Sperone Westwater art gallery located at 257 Bowery Street where there was a group of paintings by Malcolm Morley. When I walked in, directly across from me hung a vibrant painting with all different shades of pink, green, and yellow. I came closer and was able to make out two soldiers with spears riding beautiful horses in battle. With a green and yellow sunset, gold mountains in the background, yellow flags on a grey and pink monument, and figures dressed in garments with many abstract shapes on them, the painting gives off a strong sense of royalty, courage and honor. It is a stunning work of art.

Like many art galleries, each piece of work in this exhibit had its own large and bare white wall to itself. When I immediately stepped in, there was a narrow hallway with an archway that I walked through. Then all of a sudden the room completely opened up, with one very large painting on the right wall, and one on the left wall. Then came another narrow hallway and archway. Directly through this, and across from the first entrance, hung the painting that I chose to take a closer look at. Like the other paintings in the  gallery, this painting too was extremely large and had the entire wall to itself. I found that the completely bare wall simply served as a background to the painting, and did not add much to the art itself. What I did notice however was that the white wall did make all the colors pop and jump off the canvas, due to the obvious and apparent contrast it created. I believe this environment definitely affected the way I viewed this art because it forced me to focus my attention strictly on the painting. Had there been more paintings on the wall competing with this unique and intricate work of art, it would have shown that sometimes more is less. However, I would be interested in seeing what it would like with a wall designed as a field, forest, or even a town square, since those sceneries would contribute to the sense of fighting and war that the art depicts. I truly enjoyed seeing both of these works of art, and look forward to seeing what I’m drawn to next.