Venture Out to See Seven Queer Public Artworks
Across NYC
Looking for safe ways to see art? We compiled a list of beloved public artworks
that celebrate LGBTQ makers and lives.
Hrag VartanianAugust 10, 2020

Keith Haring’s ​Crack in Wack​ mural is a favorite among art lovers in Upper Manhattan. (images courtesy
Louise Hunnicutt)

Corporations act as though June is the only month LGBTQ people should celebrate theirpride, but that’s not right, because we’re proud all year round.
I thought now we be a good time — as people have started to become more adventurous
and have started wandering the streets after months of being pent up in our apartments— to spotlight some of the works by queer artists that you can view without steppinginside a gallery or museum. (But don’t forget to wear your mask and follow social
distancing guidelines.)
Here is a list of some favorite (permanent and temporary) public art works in New York
City you might not know about, and some history that might interest you.

The Keith Haring bathroom at NYC’s LGBT Center (photo via ​flickr.com/pom-angers​)

Keith Haring “Once Upon a Time” at the LGBTCenterNo list of queer art in NYC would be complete without a mention of Keith Haring, whowas effortlessly able to combine the zeitgeist of the 1980s with his queer sensibility anduniversally loved line drawings.
His bathroom work, titled “Once Upon a Time” (1989) is the best known of his “public”
works, though you can’t always sneak a peek at this all-over work on the second floor of
Manhattan’s LGBT Center as it’s often being used for meetings (it’s no longer abathroom). But if that’s inaccessible, you can always check out his ​Crack Is Wack​ muralin Harlem; his ​Pop Shop ceiling​ currently on display at the New-York Historical Society;his ​two murals​ at ​Woodhull Hospital​ in Bushwick/Bed-Stuy (one is ​tucked away in thematernity ward​); his ​Carmine Street pool​ mural; or his final work, the ​Life of Christ
altarpiece​ at St. John the Divine in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood. It’s
not an understatement to say the spirit of Haring continues to live on throughout NYC.

Emma Stubbins’s Bathesda Fountain is a popular tourist site. (photo via ​flickr.com/kingfox​)Emma Stubbins’s Bethesda Fountain in Central
Park
Many people are unaware that one of the most iconic fountains in the city is by a19th-century lesbian American sculptor. Often known simply as the Bethesda Fountain,
its official name is “Angel of the Waters” (1873).
Emma Stubbins was the daughter of a wealthy banker, and when she moved to Rome
she met Charlotte Cushman, an American actress, and the two would eventually
exchange vows in a ceremony they considered a marriage. While rumors of nepotism
have surrounded the fountain since it was commissioned (Stebbins’ brother was thechairman of Central Park’s Committee on Statuary, Fountains and ArchitecturalStructure), the attractive sculpture regularly attracts tourists and New Yorkers alike, andit regularly features in Hollywood films as a quintessential city landmark.
The work itself was inspired by the Old Testament story of an angel giving the waters ofBethesda healing powers and the mid-19th-century Croton Aqueduct, which modernized
life in the city.

Images of the artist Patricia Cronin inspecting the installation of a bronze version of “Memorial to aMarriage,” which portrays her and her spouse cuddling. (photo via )Patricia Cronin’s “Memorial to a Marriage” inWoodlawn Cemetery
This work is located in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, which is one of the city’s mostbeautiful cemeteries. Artist ​Patricia Cronin​ depicts herself and her partner, artist
Deborah Kass, in a loving moment. It was created during a time when gay marriage wasstill illegal in the United States.
The original marble version was installed in 2002, but, partly because of NYC pollution,
it was replaced with a bronze version in 2011, the same year gay marriage was legalized
in New York state.
At the time, ​Cronin told writer Allison Meier​ that she picked bronze not only for its
fortitude, but also to add a level of interaction with visitors, as she liked how peopleoften touched beloved sculptures in Parisian cemeteries. “I like extending theperformatory participatory nature of my project,” she said. She also likes to call it an“anti-monument.”
Whatever you call it, it’s a welcome addition to NYC public art.

George Segal’s Gay Liberation Monument (1980) in Greenwich Village (via ​flickr.com/annulla​)

George Segal’s Gay Liberation Monument inChristopher Park
While the sculptor isn’t LGBTQ himself, George Segal’s “​Gay Liberation Monument​” islocated across the street from the Stonewall bar, and a must-see for any fan of queer
public art in New York.

The work was commissioned in 1979, but it wasn’t until 1992 when it was unveiled in
Manhattan’s Christopher Park due to controversies about its subject matter.
When famed activist Marsha P. Johnson was asked about the sculpture, ​she said​, “Howmany people have died for these two little statues to be put in the park to recognize gaypeople? How many years does it take for people to realize we’re all brothers and sisters
in the human race? … We’re all in this rat race together.”Fast forward to now, and ​some LGBTQ activists think the sculpture whitewashes
LGBTQ history​.

Jeffrey Gibson, “Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House” (2020) at Socrates
Sculpture Park (photo courtesy Socrates Sculpture Park)

Jeffrey Gibson at Socrates Sculpture ParkThe artist’s “Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House” (2020) may bea temporary work, but it’s worth the trip.

Jeffrey Gibson explains that his ziggurat sculpture “serves as an homage to ingenuity ofIndigenous North American peoples and cultures, to pre-Columbian Mississippianarchitecture, and to queer camp aesthetics.” The work is made of plywood and covered
with vibrant wheat-pasted posters, and it is part of the ​Monuments Now​ exhibition,
which continues until March 2021 in Queens.

Robert Indiana’s “LOVE” on Sixth Avenue (image via ​flickr.com/jakeprzespo​)

Robert Indiana’s LOVE in Midtown
Most people don’t know Robert Indiana was gay, but I feel like that fact adds anotherlayer to his iconic “LOVE” symbol. This big sculpture, formally known as “Love RedBlue,” is a tourist favorite and sits at the corner of 55th Street and Sixth Avenue inManhattan. If that’s not there (like it was last year when it was being cleaned) then you
can always check out his ​HOPE sculpture​ close by at 53rd Street and Seventh Avenue.
Fun fact: the LOVE work was an evolution of a two-dimensional work Indiana createdfor the Museum of Modern Art’s Christmas card in 1964, while the first version of thework is fittingly (because of his name) in the Indianapolis Museum of Art and dates to1970.
According to ​Untapped Cities​, Indiana, who was raised in a Christian Sciencehousehold, explained the origins of the image to art collector Larry Aldrich this way:
The ​LOVE​ paintings sprang like a crop from that seed planted at your museum,
Larry. The painting you commissioned, ​Love is God​, which burst into mind when
I learned that you were converting an old Christian Science Church in Ridgefield .
. . for I, as a child, was raised as a Christian Scientist, and the word ​LOVE​ wasindelibly imprinted in the mind, for there is that slightly different phrase, ‘God isLove,’ on every front wall of every one of Mary Baker Eddy’s houses throughout
the world.

Work by Alan Pelaez Lopez. (photo by Luna Park, and used with permission)

Five Queer Artists as part of Art in Ad Places
Five queer artists — ​Demian DinéYazhi’​, ​Alan Pelaez Lopez​, ​Kah Yangni​, ​Ashley
Lukashevsky​, and ​Jessica Sabogal​ — were included in the latest Art in Ad Places series
that are dotting the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan​.​ Each artist makes
intersectional and feminist work that responds to their community and the power
structures that continue to oppress BIPOC communities.
Alan Pelaez Lopez explains the meaning behind their piece:
This work should be in public space because the society that we currently live inis failing Black people daily. Every entity named in this art piece is an entity that
advances the global circuit of anti-Black violence that forecloses our futures:
pol(ice), prisons, borders, and corporations. Each time this piece is read in apublic space, this piece demands that we betray the systems that we were taught
to trust under settler-colonial law. I also want to remind all Black people to holdon to their joy because Black joy and Black pleasure are and will continue to be
the antithesis to anti-Blackness.

You can learn more about ​Art in Ad Places​ on itswebsite.
* * *If you have another LGBTQ public art favorites in New York City, please post them inthe comments below.
This article, part of a series focused on LGBTQ+ artists and art movements, issupported by S
​ wann Auction Galleries.​
Swann’s upcoming sale “L​ GBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History,​ ” featuring works
and material by Richmond Barthé, JEB, David Hockney, Peter Hujar, Harvey Milk,Toyen, Oscar Wilde, & David Wojnarowicz, will take place on August 13, 2020. A
portion of the proceeds from this sale will benefit N​ YC LGBT Historic Sites Project.​Find this article in:​ ​https://hyperallergic.com/581742/venture-out-to-see-seven-queer-public-artworksacross-nyc/