Henry Orlik b. 1947
Framed H. 71 cm. x W. 53 cm., H. 28 in. x W. 21 in.
Further images
Here New York City’s Grand Central Station appears to be constructed from plastic shapes and toy blocks, using colours which are associated with children’s toys. Holes in one of the walls on the far structure appear like the holes in cartoon cheese or a child’s toy to post objects through. The structure of the station is a maze of shapes, a rounded arch, linear windows and doorways, triangular vents and red and white stripes on a staircase. The station becomes a labyrinth of corridors, pathways and openings above which rises a structure like a Greek temple on a mound, like the Parthenon rises above the city of Athens. Mysterious steam rises from the below the ground either side of the staircase, as steam rises on the streets of New York out of manhole covers and gratings and from red and white striped steam pipes. The steam here is animated, as if the only moving part of the painting as it emerges stealthily from a secret world below, infiltrating the upper world.