Lincoln Center - Public Art Fund

About

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is one of the world’s premiere performing arts organizations. On October 8, 2022, David Geffen Hall reopened as a welcoming cultural anchor for New York City, some 60 years after it was first inaugurated as the home of the New York Philharmonic. The new Hall reimagines the concert-going experience by providing more inclusive public spaces for diverse cultural performances and community uses. This initiative includes an annual program of art commissions, where all members of the public are invited to engage with the work of leading contemporary artists free of charge. The democratic approach instills a sense of welcome both indoors and out, beckoning those who may never have interacted with Lincoln Center or the New York Philharmonic, and encouraging those long familiar with the campus to see it afresh.

Public Art Fund partnered with The Studio Museum in Harlem to advise Lincoln Center on the selection of artists for this first iteration of the art program. Two prominent sites were identified for the site-specific commissions: the 50-foot Hauser Digital Wall in the lobby, which Jacolby Satterwhite has animated with a richly layered and inclusive celebration of performance that brings into dialogue the past, present and future; and the Hall’s 65th Street façade, which Nina Chanel Abney has transformed into a captivating tribute to the vibrant history and culture of San Juan Hill. Both artists undertook extensive research to develop their works. They emerge as gifted visual storytellers, committed to a more inclusive understanding of the past while giving us all a sense of future potential at a moment of reopening and reinvention.

The artworks are commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with The Studio Museum in Harlem and Public Art Fund.

Nina Chanel Abney, San Juan Heal

Nina Chanel Abney (b. 1982, Chicago)
San Juan Heal, 2022
Latex ink and vinyl mounted on glass
68’ x 150’

Nina Chanel Abney’s monumental work of art for the façade of David Geffen Hall pays homage to San Juan Hill. In the 1940s and 50s, this predominantly Black and Brown neighborhood was forcibly displaced to make way for redevelopment, including what would become Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Abney’s constellation of figures, words, shapes, and symbols reflects the thriving community that lived here. Featured residents include pioneering healthcare workers Edith Carter and Elizabeth Tyler. Also pictured are James P. Johnson, whose music gave rise to the Charleston dance craze, and Thelonious Monk, a pioneer of Bebop and other jazz styles. Reclaiming this important history in her bold and vibrant style, Abney aims to spark curiosity and inspire a more inclusive future.

EXPLORE THE ARTWORK: Click on the image below, then hover over each small “i” circle to learn more about the historical figures and symbols depicted in Abney’s artwork.

Nina Chanel Abney , “Study for San Juan Heal,” 2022

Benny Carter (1907-2003) grew up in San Juan Hill to become a pioneering bandleader and jazzman whose musical talents were unparalleled. He played the saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, and piano and is widely celebrated as an "Architect of the Swing Era sound." He was one of first African Americans to arrange and write music for movies and television, such as the classic musical Stormy Weather (1943), and Sidney Poitier’s Buck and the Preacher (1972), as well as the police procedural M Squad, where he helped create the archetypal "detective jazz" sound featured in other crime dramas of that era. In 1996 his suite Echoes of San Juan Hill, a musical homage to the neighborhood, had its premiere with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Black American soldiers were deployed in the 1898 Spanish American War that took place in Cuba, fighting both on foot and mounted on horseback. Two battles in an area known as San Juan Heights– the battle of San Juan Hill and the battle of Kettle Hill– were considered among the most decisive battles of the war. The all-Black 10th Cavalry and 24th Infantry fought in these engagements and were considered key to the victories. In 1909, 634 members of the 10th Cavalry were honored in a 9-mile parade through New York City coordinated by a Black civic group. While there is no unilateral agreement about why San Juan Hill was so named, a July 27, 1909 write up in The New York Times about this well-attended parade mentioned the neighborhood bearing the same name as their famous battles, one of earliest instances this neighborhood name occurred in print.

A San Juan Hill native, Herbie Nichols (1919-1963) was a jazz musician and composer, who started playing piano at the age of nine. A highly eclectic and imaginative artist, Nichols created a new complex sound by mixing Dixieland, swing, West Indian folk, and European classical harmonies. His compositions were humorous, thematic and daring, often incorporating rhythmic displacements and extending beyond the limits of song form. A prolific artist, he composed about 170 songs, and recorded four albums between the years 1955–57. Although responsible for composing notable tunes such as “Lady Sings the Blues” with Billie Holiday, his originality went largely overlooked during his lifetime. Fatally stricken by leukemia at age 44, his career was tragically cut short; in the years following his death his body of work garnered a cult following that continues to honor his legacy.

Elizabeth Tyler was the first African American nurse to be hired by the Henry Street Settlement (a social service agency founded in 1893 in Lower Manhattan), at a time when it was extremely rare for women of color to receive medical education. White patients refused to be treated by her and white medical professionals didn’t provide care in San Juan Hill, so in the early 1900s she, along with nurses Edith Carter and Jessie Sleet Scales, started their own initiative, the Stillman House Settlement, with the support of Lillian Wald. This facility not only provided treatment for black and brown patients suffering from tuberculosis, paralysis, and other illnesses, but provided social services for the community, such as banking, educational courses, and recreational activities.

The songwriting duo Noble Sissle (1889-1975) and Eubie Blake (1887-1983) created the score for the musical Shuffle Along, which premiered at 63rd Street Music Hall in San Juan Hill in 1921. It was the biggest hit of the season and became known as a rite of passage for several African American performing arts legends, such as Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson. Sissle and Blake’s work was included in Lincoln Center’s 2005 American Songbook program “At Harlem’s Heights,” which paid homage to jazz music composed by black artists from San Juan Hill and greater Harlem.

Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) grew up in San Juan Hill and became a renowned jazz pianist with a unique improvisational style. He was widely regarded as a founding father of jazz and credited with musical innovations that led to a new style of jazz known as Bebop. Jazz at Lincoln Center held an annual Thelonious Monk festival for several years, paying tribute to the music legend.

A San Juan Hill native, Barbara Hillary (1931– 2019) was a trailblazing adventurer best known for being the first African American woman to reach both the North and South poles, at ages 75 and 79. She was also a dedicated community activist and founder of The Peninsula Magazine, a multi-racial publication.

The family of James P. Johnson (1894-1955) moved from Jersey City to San Juan Hill when he was 14 years old. His big hit was “The Charleston,” a jazz composition to accompany the Charleston dance, which debuted in his Broadway play Runnin’ Wild. Johnson was the foremost proponent of Harlem Stride piano, which combined the styles of Boogie-Woogie and Ragtime.

Rogelio Ramirez (1913-1994) traveled with his family from Puerto Rico to Manhattan via Ellis Island in 1920, settling in the San Juan Hill neighborhood. Ramirez was an accomplished pianist in the genres of swing, bop and jazz. He co-composed the jazz standard Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be), which was popularized by Billie Holiday, and interpreted by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and others.

Edith Carter was one of the first African American nurses to provide primary maternal and infant care in New York City. In the early 1900’s, Carter, along with nurses Elizabeth Tyler, and Jessie Sleet Scales, started an initiative in San Juan Hill called the Stillman House Settlement (which later became the Lincoln House Settlement). There they provided health care and social services to the black community, who were refused treatment by white doctors and nurses.

In 1923, James P. Johnson’s Broadway musical Runnin’ Wild took the stage at the New Colonial Theater in San Juan Hill. It featured Johnson’s hit composition “The Charleston.” The Charleston dance draws roots from styles of West African movement retraced by African Americans in the U.S. South. It was popularized from San Juan Hill in New York and then won recognition worldwide. The dance gestures towards flow and cultural exchange. Residents of San Juan Hill came from the South, other parts of the US, and the Caribbean. From San Juan Hill they went to other parts of the United States, back to the Caribbean, and elsewhere. Black performers went to Europe when they found their access to American stages decreased as the Charleston, ragtime, stride and swing faded, and as their neighborhoods changed. The Charleston welcomed all people across continents with both hands.

For many, the completion of the Amsterdam Houses in 1947 marked what some had long known — San Juan Hill as it once was, was no more. The numerous high-rise towers of the housing complex span from 61st Street to 64th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and West End Avenue–almost the entire tract of land where the modest tenements of San Juan Hill once stood. About 1,000 San Juan Hill residents still living in the area in the beginning of 1941 were warned to vacate their premises by July 1st when construction was set to begin. Though the new housing was intended to provide shelter to over 1,100 families once finished, most Black San Juan Hill residents who left the area did not return.

The 1956 Lincoln Square Development Plan set forward a plan for the City of New York to acquire an L-shaped mass of land and property for redevelopment. This graphic repeats that shape. Most of this land was considered Lincoln Square, as San Juan Hill was neatly excluded from the oddly outlined area because most of San Juan Hill had just been redeveloped to make way for the Amsterdam Houses. Still, fulfilling the Lincoln Square Development Plan meant that the churches, theaters and businesses of Lincoln Square that overlapped with the culture of San Juan Hill were further lost and obscured.

Soul at the Center was the first major presentation of Black art and culture at Lincoln Center. Ellis Haizlip, an arts producer and TV host of the show Soul! curated the series along with radio deejay Gerry Bledsoe. Lincoln Center promotional materials describe the event as “a showcase of the finest Black artists from virtually every field of the arts.” In 1972, the two-week engagement in Philharmonic Hall and Alice Tully Hall featured musicians including Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Labelle, Cecil Taylor and Carmen McRae. The series also included poets like Nikki Giovanni and Felipe Luciano, and dancers like Diana Ramos and the George Faison Universal Dance Experience as well as a fashion show and display of visual art. The following year, the series returned as Soul ‘73 and brought back performers from the first year as well as a range of new acts including Sister Sledge, The Spinners, Tina Turner and many others.

Black saints were depicted in many black churches that moved into the area in the 1880s and 90s, including St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal, Mt. Olivet Baptist and St. Benedict the Moor Church.

Benny Carter (1907-2003) grew up in San Juan Hill to become a pioneering bandleader and jazzman whose musical talents were unparalleled. He played the saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, and piano and is widely celebrated as an "Architect of the Swing Era sound." He was one of first African Americans to arrange and write music for movies and television, such as the classic musical Stormy Weather (1943), and Sidney Poitier’s Buck and the Preacher (1972), as well as the police procedural M Squad, where he helped create the archetypal "detective jazz" sound featured in other crime dramas of that era. In 1996 his suite Echoes of San Juan Hill, a musical homage to the neighborhood, had its premiere with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Black American soldiers were deployed in the 1898 Spanish American War that took place in Cuba, fighting both on foot and mounted on horseback. Two battles in an area known as San Juan Heights– the battle of San Juan Hill and the battle of Kettle Hill– were considered among the most decisive battles of the war. The all-Black 10th Cavalry and 24th Infantry fought in these engagements and were considered key to the victories. In 1909, 634 members of the 10th Cavalry were honored in a 9-mile parade through New York City coordinated by a Black civic group. While there is no unilateral agreement about why San Juan Hill was so named, a July 27, 1909 write up in The New York Times about this well-attended parade mentioned the neighborhood bearing the same name as their famous battles, one of earliest instances this neighborhood name occurred in print.

A San Juan Hill native, Herbie Nichols (1919-1963) was a jazz musician and composer, who started playing piano at the age of nine. A highly eclectic and imaginative artist, Nichols created a new complex sound by mixing Dixieland, swing, West Indian folk, and European classical harmonies. His compositions were humorous, thematic and daring, often incorporating rhythmic displacements and extending beyond the limits of song form. A prolific artist, he composed about 170 songs, and recorded four albums between the years 1955–57. Although responsible for composing notable tunes such as “Lady Sings the Blues” with Billie Holiday, his originality went largely overlooked during his lifetime. Fatally stricken by leukemia at age 44, his career was tragically cut short; in the years following his death his body of work garnered a cult following that continues to honor his legacy.

Elizabeth Tyler was the first African American nurse to be hired by the Henry Street Settlement (a social service agency founded in 1893 in Lower Manhattan), at a time when it was extremely rare for women of color to receive medical education. White patients refused to be treated by her and white medical professionals didn’t provide care in San Juan Hill, so in the early 1900s she, along with nurses Edith Carter and Jessie Sleet Scales, started their own initiative, the Stillman House Settlement, with the support of Lillian Wald. This facility not only provided treatment for black and brown patients suffering from tuberculosis, paralysis, and other illnesses, but provided social services for the community, such as banking, educational courses, and recreational activities.

The songwriting duo Noble Sissle (1889-1975) and Eubie Blake (1887-1983) created the score for the musical Shuffle Along, which premiered at 63rd Street Music Hall in San Juan Hill in 1921. It was the biggest hit of the season and became known as a rite of passage for several African American performing arts legends, such as Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson. Sissle and Blake’s work was included in Lincoln Center’s 2005 American Songbook program “At Harlem’s Heights,” which paid homage to jazz music composed by black artists from San Juan Hill and greater Harlem.

Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) grew up in San Juan Hill and became a renowned jazz pianist with a unique improvisational style. He was widely regarded as a founding father of jazz and credited with musical innovations that led to a new style of jazz known as Bebop. Jazz at Lincoln Center held an annual Thelonious Monk festival for several years, paying tribute to the music legend.

A San Juan Hill native, Barbara Hillary (1931– 2019) was a trailblazing adventurer best known for being the first African American woman to reach both the North and South poles, at ages 75 and 79. She was also a dedicated community activist and founder of The Peninsula Magazine, a multi-racial publication.

The family of James P. Johnson (1894-1955) moved from Jersey City to San Juan Hill when he was 14 years old. His big hit was “The Charleston,” a jazz composition to accompany the Charleston dance, which debuted in his Broadway play Runnin’ Wild. Johnson was the foremost proponent of Harlem Stride piano, which combined the styles of Boogie-Woogie and Ragtime.

Rogelio Ramirez (1913-1994) traveled with his family from Puerto Rico to Manhattan via Ellis Island in 1920, settling in the San Juan Hill neighborhood. Ramirez was an accomplished pianist in the genres of swing, bop and jazz. He co-composed the jazz standard Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be), which was popularized by Billie Holiday, and interpreted by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and others.

Edith Carter was one of the first African American nurses to provide primary maternal and infant care in New York City. In the early 1900’s, Carter, along with nurses Elizabeth Tyler, and Jessie Sleet Scales, started an initiative in San Juan Hill called the Stillman House Settlement (which later became the Lincoln House Settlement). There they provided health care and social services to the black community, who were refused treatment by white doctors and nurses.

In 1923, James P. Johnson’s Broadway musical Runnin’ Wild took the stage at the New Colonial Theater in San Juan Hill. It featured Johnson’s hit composition “The Charleston.” The Charleston dance draws roots from styles of West African movement retraced by African Americans in the U.S. South. It was popularized from San Juan Hill in New York and then won recognition worldwide. The dance gestures towards flow and cultural exchange. Residents of San Juan Hill came from the South, other parts of the US, and the Caribbean. From San Juan Hill they went to other parts of the United States, back to the Caribbean, and elsewhere. Black performers went to Europe when they found their access to American stages decreased as the Charleston, ragtime, stride and swing faded, and as their neighborhoods changed. The Charleston welcomed all people across continents with both hands.

For many, the completion of the Amsterdam Houses in 1947 marked what some had long known — San Juan Hill as it once was, was no more. The numerous high-rise towers of the housing complex span from 61st Street to 64th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and West End Avenue–almost the entire tract of land where the modest tenements of San Juan Hill once stood. About 1,000 San Juan Hill residents still living in the area in the beginning of 1941 were warned to vacate their premises by July 1st when construction was set to begin. Though the new housing was intended to provide shelter to over 1,100 families once finished, most Black San Juan Hill residents who left the area did not return.

The 1956 Lincoln Square Development Plan set forward a plan for the City of New York to acquire an L-shaped mass of land and property for redevelopment. This graphic repeats that shape. Most of this land was considered Lincoln Square, as San Juan Hill was neatly excluded from the oddly outlined area because most of San Juan Hill had just been redeveloped to make way for the Amsterdam Houses. Still, fulfilling the Lincoln Square Development Plan meant that the churches, theaters and businesses of Lincoln Square that overlapped with the culture of San Juan Hill were further lost and obscured.

Soul at the Center was the first major presentation of Black art and culture at Lincoln Center. Ellis Haizlip, an arts producer and TV host of the show Soul! curated the series along with radio deejay Gerry Bledsoe. Lincoln Center promotional materials describe the event as “a showcase of the finest Black artists from virtually every field of the arts.” In 1972, the two-week engagement in Philharmonic Hall and Alice Tully Hall featured musicians including Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Labelle, Cecil Taylor and Carmen McRae. The series also included poets like Nikki Giovanni and Felipe Luciano, and dancers like Diana Ramos and the George Faison Universal Dance Experience as well as a fashion show and display of visual art. The following year, the series returned as Soul ‘73 and brought back performers from the first year as well as a range of new acts including Sister Sledge, The Spinners, Tina Turner and many others.

Black saints were depicted in many black churches that moved into the area in the 1880s and 90s, including St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal, Mt. Olivet Baptist and St. Benedict the Moor Church.

San Juan Hill was home to lively entertainment venues, such as the famous jazz club “Jungles Casino”, as well as tenement basement clubs, poolrooms, saloons, cabarets, and dance halls.

Jacolby Satterwhite, An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time

Jacolby Satterwhite (b. 1986, Columbia, SC)
An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time, 2022
HD color video and 3D animation
27:23 mins

Jacolby Satterwhite’s commission for David Geffen Hall reconsiders the past, present, and future of Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic. An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time weaves together archival images, live action footage, and digital animation. We see a colorful and densely layered festival of performance that traverses historical periods through virtual space. Satterwhite’s inclusive cast represents artists since the Philharmonic’s founding in 1842, while featuring young musicians and dancers from across New York City. They play instruments and dance on stages and sculptural monuments set into a landscape inspired by Central Park and surrounded by buildings covered in screens, reminiscent of Times Square. Grounded in a more democratic view of history, Satterwhite’s work offers us his playful and richly inventive vision of a creatively empowered future.

About the Artists

Nina Chanel Abney is known for combining representation and abstraction. Her paintings capture the frenetic pace of contemporary culture. Broaching subjects as diverse as race, celebrity, religion, politics, sex, and art history, her works eschew linear storytelling in lieu of disjointed narratives. The effect is information overload, balanced with a kind of spontaneous order, where time and space are compressed and identity is interchangeable. Her distinctively bold style harnesses the flux and simultaneity that have come to define life in the 21st century. Through a bracing use of color and unapologetic scale, Abney’s canvases propose a new type of history painting, one grounded in the barrage of everyday events and funneled through the velocity of the internet.

Abney’s work is included in collections around the world, including the Brooklyn Museum, The Rubell Family Collection, Bronx Museum, and the Burger Collection, Hong Kong. Her first solo museum exhibition, Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush, curated by Marshall Price, was presented in 2017 at the Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina. It traveled to the Chicago Cultural Center and then to Los Angeles, where it was jointly presented by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the California African American Museum. The final venue for the exhibition was the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York.

Jacolby Satterwhite is celebrated for a conceptual practice addressing crucial themes of labor, consumption, carnality, and fantasy through immersive installation, virtual reality, and digital media. He uses a range of software to produce intricately detailed animations and live action film of real and imagined worlds populated by the avatars of artists and friends. These animations serve as the stage on which the artist synthesizes the multiple disciplines that encompass his practice, namely painting, performance, illustration, sculpture, photography, and writing. Satterwhite draws from an extensive set of references, guided by queer theory, modernism, and video game language to challenge conventions of Western art through a personal and political lens. An equally significant influence is that of his late mother, Patricia Satterwhite, whose ethereal vocals and diagrams for visionary household products serve as the source material within a decidedly complex structure of memory and mythology. Satterwhite received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Arts, Baltimore and his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions and festivals internationally, including most recently at Haus der Kunst, Munich,2021; Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju,(2021; and Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, 2021.

About Creative Partnerships

Extending our core mission to present dynamic exhibitions by the world’s most compelling artists and make culture accessible to all, Public Art Fund: Creative Partnerships brings strategic planning, curatorial, project management, and communications expertise to leading cultural institutions, corporations, and civic organizations across the globe. Through these collaborations, Public Art Fund commissions permanent installations and temporary exhibitions in line with the unique vision of our partners and the specific parameters of each site, resulting in new artworks that activate public spaces, create engaged constituencies, and amplify the impact of our partners’ own initiatives through the power of public art.

Credits

Jacolby Satterwhite, An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time, 2022

Commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with The Studio

Museum in Harlem and Public Art Fund

Director, Post Production, Edit, Animation, Design, VFX: Jacolby Satterwhite

Jacolby Satterwhite Gallery Representation: Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

Production Company: Scheme Engine; Executive Producer: Jannie McInnes; Head of Production: James Rothman; Line Producer: Cali Burns; Casting Director: Damian Bao; Casting Associate: Monica Nazarouk; Casting Coordinator: Sara Julia Waller; Prod. Supervisor: Brooke Eliot; Associate Producer: Hudson Payer; Coordinator: Capri Moreno; 1st AD: Lionel Cineas; 2nd AD: Dariana Jiron; DP: Eric Vera; 1st AC: Carey Hu; 2nd AC: Jade Williams; Gaffer: Rommel Genciana; Best Boy Electric: Vic Roxas; Electric: Amaal Mustafa; Key Grip: Rolan Shin; Best Boy Grip: Nick Love; Grip: David Anthony; Art Director: Amber Unkle; Art Assistant: Brett Calvo; Stylist: David Casavant; Stylist Assistant: Susan Walsh; MUA: Rashad Taylor; MUA Assistant: Samantha Murrell, Koplah Tinubu; BTS Photographer: Gianna Scott; Covid Compliance Officer: Harrison Lipton; Covid Assistant: Diego Santiago; AD PA: Bertus Regis, Dumarck Barlatier; Set PA: Silas Morrill, Ian Bakerman; Office PA: Jordan DeFilippo; Truck PA: Mike Early, Raheim Williams

Post Production: The Mill New York; Executive Producer: Matthew Loranger; Creative Director: Chris Bernier; Vault Services and Magic: Technical Operations Team

Cloud Rendering: Conductor Technologies

Research Assistance:
New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon Levy Digital Archives
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Knowledge and Legacy Team

Dancers:
Aaron Williams, Adia Edmondson, Alysha Mcknight, Anastasia Gregorio, Annabel Miller Green, Arianna Francesca Black, Arthur Gorlorwulu, Bee Kelly, Brielle Ivy Henderson, Brooklyn Libao, Camryne Bryce Quinn, Casey Schwarz, Christofer Medina, Dava Huesca, Dymon Samara, Easton Nguyen, Elena Dalakoudi, Enrica Zaini, Gibson Sword, Grace O’Mara, Haley Morgan Miller, Hannah Howell, Imani Curry-Johnson, Jada M. Alfred, Jaylyn Garcia, Jessica Watkins, Josi Díaz, Juliette Marie, Kai Nakayama, Kaitlyn Chang, Kandace Campbell, Kimberly Chok, Kya Azeen, Kyara Scott, Lauren Barette, Lauren Olson, Lexi Sim, Lia Lewis, Liam Mclaughlin, Lilith Morris, Lisaundor Blossom Reid, Low D’Agostino, Malik Berry, Marie Gabrielle Lorenzo, Maxi Hawkeye Canion, Mia Jamerson, Mikee Ellis, Morgan Gregory, Najah Aldridge, Nandini Kannan, Nhyira Oforiwaa Asante, Nia Simone Washington-Saed, Nicholas “Primo” Segar, O’Shae “Sage” Sibley, Olivia Boisson, Omarion Richard Burke, Patrick Gamble, Pearl Madnick, Priscilla Tom, Riley Newman, Robyn Ayers, Seira Soraya, Skye Jackson- Williams, Sooah Madison, Sydney Faye Erwin, Toni Owens, Wren Coleman, Zachary Burrows, Zev Haworth

Musicians:
Alexandra Ridout, Alexandria Worthley, Alexis Rondon, Angel Munoz-Avila, Audrey Pretnar, Benjamin Wason, Bernell Jones II, Bethlehem Hadgu, Caitlin Fischer, Camerahn Alforque, Carla Fortmann, Carlos Aguilar, Christine (Lola) Santiago, Chrystelle Catalano, Dana Saba David, David Ladwig, Drew Stier, Georgi Lekov, Ian Muñoz, Isabel Serrano, Jakub Piotr Wycislik, Jamicka Johnson-Hector, Jason Inyoung Lee, Joey Machina, Joshua Mathew, Julia Cumming, Karina Byakova, Kevin Kuh, Kylie Ku’uleinani Minako Fernandez, Liam John Cashin, Michelle David, Nathan Diesendruck, Nina Tompkins, Pedro Asfora, Rebecca Leilah Chaqor, Remy Yin, Sam Chung, Samir Robinson, Seira Soraya, Shaleah Feinstein, Sophia Kickhofel, Sulamit Gorski, Theo Liao, Theo Rockas, Toluwalase Ojo, Vincent Turrie, Yazmin Janelle Lancaster, Zach Adleman

En Español: Sobre la Exposición

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts es una de las principales organizaciones de artes escénicas del mundo. El 8 de octubre de 2022, David Geffen Hall reabrió sus puertas como ancla cultural de recibimiento para la ciudad de Nueva York, unos 60 años después de su inauguración como sede de la Filarmónica de Nueva York. La nueva sala reinventa la experiencia de ir a un concierto proporcionando espacios públicos más inclusivos para presentaciones culturales diversas y usos comunitarios. Esta iniciativa incluye un programa anual de encargos de arte, donde se invita al público a participar en la obra de los artistas contemporáneos más destacados de forma gratuita. El enfoque democrático infunde una sensación de bienvenida tanto en el interior como en el exterior, atrayendo a aquellos que tal vez nunca hayan interactuado con el Lincoln Center o la Filarmónica de Nueva York y alentando a aquellos que conocen el campus desde hace mucho tiempo a verlo de nuevo.

Public Art Fund se asoció con The Studio Museum de Harlem para asesorar al Lincoln Center en la selección de artistas para esta primera versión del programa de arte. Se identificaron dos sitios prominentes para los encargos específicos para un lugar: la Hauser Digital Wall de 50 pies (15 m) en el vestíbulo, que Jacolby Satterwhite animó con una celebración de interpretaciones estratificada e inclusiva que hace dialogar al pasado, el presente y el futuro, y la fachada de la sala en 65th Street, que Nina Chanel Abney transformó en un tributo cautivador a la vibrante historia y cultura de San Juan Hill. Ambos artistas llevaron a cabo una investigación exhaustiva para crear sus obras. Emergieron como talentosos narradores visuales, comprometidos con una comprensión más inclusiva del pasado al tiempo que nos dieron a todos nosotros una sensación de potencial futuro en un momento de reapertura y reinvención.

Las obras de arte fueron encargadas por el Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts en colaboración con The Studio Museum de Harlem y Public Art Fund.

Nina Chanel Abney, San Juan Heal (Recuperación de San Juan)

Nina Chanel Abney (n. en 1982 en Chicago)
San Juan Heal (Recuperación de San Juan), 2022
Tinta látex y vinilo sobre vidrio
68’ (20 m) x 150’ (45 m)

La monumental obra de arte de Nina Chanel Abney para la fachada de David Geffen Hall rinde homenaje a San Juan Hill. En las décadas de 1940 y 1950, este vecindario en su mayoría afroamericano y latino y asiático fue desplazado por la fuerza para dar paso a una reurbanización, que incluía lo que se convertiría en el Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. La constelación de figuras, palabras, formas y símbolos de Abney refleja la floreciente comunidad que vivía aquí. Entre los residentes representados se encuentran las pioneras trabajadoras sanitarias Edith Carter y Elizabeth Tyler. También aparecen en las imágenes James P. Johnson, cuya música dio lugar a la moda del baile de charlestón, y Thelonious Monk, un pionero del bebop y otros estilos de jazz. Abney recupera esta importante historia con su estilo audaz y vibrante, e intenta despertar la curiosidad e inspirar un futuro más inclusivo.

Jacolby Satterwhite, An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time (Una danza ecléctica al ritmo de la música del tiempo)

Jacolby Satterwhite (n. en 1986, Columbia, SC)
An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time (Una danza ecléctica al ritmo de la música del tiempo), 2022
Video en color de alta definición y animación 3D
27:23 minutos

La obra de Jacolby Satterwhite encargada para David Geffen Hall reconsidera el pasado, el presente y el futuro del Lincoln Center y la Filarmónica de Nueva York. An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time (Una danza ecléctica al ritmo de la música del tiempo) entrelaza imágenes de archivo, secuencias de acción en vivo y animación digital. Vemos un festival de interpretaciones colorido y densamente estratificado que atraviesa períodos históricos mediante el espacio virtual. El elenco inclusivo de Satterwhite representa a artistas desde la fundación de la Filarmónica en 1842 y presenta a jóvenes artistas de la música y el baile de toda la ciudad de Nueva York. Los intérpretes tocan instrumentos y bailan sobre escenarios y monumentos escultóricos ambientados en un paisaje inspirado en Central Park y rodeados de edificios cubiertos de pantallas que recuerdan a Times Square. Con una óptica más democrática de la historia, la obra de Satterwhite nos ofrece su visión divertida y muy ingeniosa de un futuro empoderado con creatividad.

Sobre los Artistas

Nina Chanel Abney es conocida por combinar representación y abstracción. Sus pinturas capturan el ritmo frenético de la cultura contemporánea. En el abordaje de temas tan diversos como raza, celebridad, religión, política, sexo e historia del arte en sus obras, evita la narración lineal y opta por narrativas deshilvanadas. El efecto es una sobrecarga de información, equilibrada con una especie de orden espontáneo, donde el tiempo y el espacio se comprimen y la identidad es intercambiable. Su estilo distintivamente audaz aprovecha el flujo y la simultaneidad que han caracterizado la vida en el siglo XXI. Mediante un uso vigorizante del color y una escala impenitente, los lienzos de Abney proponen un nuevo tipo de pintura histórica, basada en el aluvión de hechos cotidianos y canalizada a través de la velocidad de Internet.

La obra de Abney está presente en colecciones de todo el mundo, como en el Brooklyn Museum, la Rubell Family Collection, el Bronx Museum y la Burger Collection, Hong Kong. Su primera exposición individual en un museo, Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush (Escalera real), curada por Marshall Price, se presentó en 2017 en el Nasher Museum of Art, Carolina del Norte. Viajó al Chicago Cultural Center y luego a Los Ángeles, donde fue presentada en forma conjunta por el Institute of Contemporary Art de Los Ángeles y el California African American Museum. El lugar final de la exposición fue el Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York.

Jacolby Satterwhite es famoso por su práctica conceptual que aborda temas cruciales del trabajo, el consumo, la carnalidad y la fantasía mediante instalaciones inmersivas, realidad virtual y medios digitales. Utiliza una variedad de softwares para producir animaciones con detalles intrincados y películas de acción en vivo de mundos reales e imaginarios poblados por los avatares de artistas y amigos. Estas animaciones son el escenario en el que el artista sintetiza las múltiples disciplinas que engloban su práctica: la pintura, la actuación, la ilustración, la escultura, la fotografía y la escritura. Satterwhite se inspira en un amplio conjunto de referencias, guiado por la teoría queer, el modernismo y el lenguaje de los videojuegos para desafiar las convenciones del arte occidental a través de una lente personal y política. Igual de significativa es la influencia de su difunta madre, Patricia Satterwhite, cuya voz etérea y diagramas para productos domésticos visionarios sirven como material fuente dentro de una estructura decididamente compleja de memoria y mitología. Satterwhite obtuvo su título de licenciado en Bellas Artes (BFA) en el Maryland Institute College of Arts, Baltimore y su maestría en Bellas Artes (MFA) en la Universidad de Pensilvania, Filadelfia. Su obra se ha presentado en numerosas exposiciones y festivales a nivel internacional; las más recientes fueron en Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2021; la Bienal de Gwangju, Gwangju, 2021; y Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, 2021.

Nina Chanel Abney, Jacolby Satterwhite: Lincoln Center