Brooklyn Art Museum Station

I honestly had no idea what the odd face and stone carvings and mosiacs around the subway station by the Brooklyn Art Museum were supposed to mean.

Hello, handsome.

 And so, I did a little research. As it would turn out, the stones were different pieces of artwork from buildings throughout New York City that were to be demolished.

 I really like the long strip above. No particular reason for that, I just find it visually pleasing.

 The mosiac designs around them were made specifically to house the different stone carvings.

 It would be hard to interpret a meaning for most of the original works, since none of them are present in their original contexts. But for the piece of art here in the subway, that all these smaller pieces join together to make? That's a much easier one to understand. This is a history of New York City..

 Now, it may not be a history of the city in a traditional way. This isn't information being preserved for future generations, nor is this the way of life written down so scholars of centuries to come will understand how the primitive American's lived. This is a history of the art. Every one of these carvings meant something at one point in time. Whether it was to ward away evil, or to just look nice above a door. Some may have had symbolic meanings, while others could have just been for fun. But they are all here now, preserved forever.

Art has always been a part of who we as humans are. Predating civilization itself, man has always strived to express feelings in depictions of their own mind. This is what all art is, an expression of feeling. Every one of these, no matter how complex or simple, was the expression of the feelings of someone who lived in New York.

 The facial expression on this one above really stood out to me. It looks like someone in great pain, or perhaps horror. Their eyes look sad and defeated. I assume that this was on the walls or balconies of some old building, but I would love to know what the artist meant by this.

 I actually tried to ask the people behind the counter at the station about these art pieces, but they didn't seem to know much about them.

 It's pretty sad how many of the people just passed by without a second look. One of the figures actually had what looked like the word "hi" written in a faint black marker on the side of its face. It's kind of disgusting how some people just don't have any respect for art like this. Just because it holds no meaning to the average passerby, doesn't mean it holds no meaning to anyone. Each of these once meant something to someone.

I really wanted to find out more about the origins of some of these, but unfortunately, the museum was closed on my visit because the air conditioning system was down. Google hasn't been too helpful at turning up more information, either. Such a shame

But despite my lack of understanding in some areas, I'm really glad I made the trip back up here for these. As many of these are higher up on buildings, seeing them up close was something I was never able to do before.