LIRR artwork spotlighted in new book 'Contemporary Art Underground'

Pre-pandemic, the artist Sandy Litchfield joined fellow competition finalists who boarded the Long Island Rail Road together for a ride out to the train stations where the winners’ art would be installed.

Suburban life whirred by. Litchfield snapped photos with her iPhone. And she was inspired.

"It’s almost like a musical score. You see the patterns of the trees and the patterns of the light posts and the buildings and the windows and people’s backyards," recalled Litchfield, 57, who ultimately won the competition, run by the MTA.

Her "Forestation Syncopation" (2021), 36 glass panels within three platform shelters presenting a stylized interpretation of the Island’s landscape and seasons, adorns the New Hyde Park station. Tens of thousands of commuters are her patrons daily.

Beauty and public art

Litchfield’s work is among more than 100 commissions documented in a new book, "Contemporary Art Underground," which spotlights the free museum of sorts offered by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in subway stations, on railroad platforms and beyond.

Almost a quarter of the book features art — fashioned in metal, mosaic, glass — viewable by LIRR passengers. The art isn’t just on platforms and in waiting areas, but also on garages and bridges and other structures that would otherwise appear utilitarian and dull.

"That’s the beauty of public art. It’s there for everybody. It’s not just there for the people who go to the museums," said Litchfield, who’s originally from Larchmont, and is an associate professor in the architecture department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. 

"It’s there for people who love art and don’t care for art. It’s there for the daily commuter, it’s there for free and it’s just there for everyone as part of their daily experience," she said. "And what I hope is that it brings some color and delight and joy and appreciation for that process, that daily commute."

The book starts with art from 2015 and continues into the present. But there are hundreds in the MTA system that predate this period.

Customizing encouraged

"Contemporary Art Underground" is the third book from Sandra Bloodworth, director of MTA Arts & Design, which oversees the art projects in the system, the largest in North America. The book was written with a deputy director, Cheryl Hageman.

During station rehabilitation projects, up to 1% of the construction budget is used to commission permanent works of art; an average project ranges from $150,000 to $300,000, including the cost of material, fabrication and installation, according to MTA spokesman Eugene Resnick. But mega projects cost more, such as the installations at the Grand Central Madison terminal stretching from 43rd to 48th streets costing $1.4 million, or .01% of the terminal’s total budget.

Selecting the project for each site involves research into community, local representatives, and back and forth with artists, as well as a vote. The artists are encouraged to tailor their work to each community.

Take the Westbury station, where since 2022 artist Darryl Westly’s "Illuminations" has been on display. The village’s history informed Westly, as did the book "The Underground Railroad on Long Island: Friends in Freedom," and figures involved in the abolition of slavery, as well as a celebrated Tuskegee airman who has ties to the Island. There are homages to the Hicks family estate and nurseries, as well as Roosevelt Field and Raceway.

At Brentwood, artist Armando Mariño’s "The Guardian Angel" was inspired by a local lore called "The Legend of the Red Owl," now considered to be a spiritual protector of the town. At Deer Park, there’s a callback by artist William Low in "Deer Park Dahlias" to the annual dahlia festivals in Deer Park and the area’s botanical legacy. At Bellmore, swimming sea creatures in artist Dan Funderburgh’s "SHOAL" are a whimsical allusion to commuters floating on and off Long Island through the station. And those are just some from 2018.

At Carle Place, artist Gail Boyajian’s "Aviary" (2020) offers a nod to the nearby Cradle of Aviation Museum, with birds in flight and flying contraptions such as balloons, blimps, passenger planes and aircraft made by Grumman. Some of the depicted birds still fly the skies; others, such as the Passenger Pigeon and Carolina Parakeet, are extinct.

Diversity metaphor

The artist Mary Judge, whose "American Season" (2018), on the station overpass bridge and the station platform shelters at Wyandanch and Pinelawn, pays tribute to the area's original inhabitants, the Native Americans, and those who live there now.

"In my color palette I wanted to engage with the history of the town of Wyandanch and work with color changes of the seasons as a metaphor for the diversity of the people who founded and then came to Wyandanch over the years," she told Newsday.

Of course, artists don’t have a totally free hand to do whatever they want. Artists propose; the MTA picks. There's feedback from local representatives; the MTA oversees the process. 

This is so there won't be a repeat of what happened in the 1930s, when industrialist tycoon John D. Rockefeller Jr. commissioned Mexican artist Diego Rivera to do a mural for Rockefeller Center. What Rivera painted was different from his sketch. That final version depicted communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, a slap in the face to Rivera's avowed capitalist patron, Rockefeller, who was furious and demanded changes. Rivera refused, saying he'd rather the mural be destroyed. So Rockefeller ordered it destroyed. And it was.

MTA 'very involved'

"We’re very involved, so, no, there’s no surprises," Hageman said.

Still, Bloodworth said: "That doesn’t mean that it’s not work that’s from the edge or work that’s very thought provoking."  

Some of the art calls back to local history, some has a political hue and some is abstract.

Bloodworth said she’s had riders relay how they were enthralled by what they'd seen.

"You’re going through a station, you’re having an experience, whether you’re fully aware of the presence of the place, you’re experiencing that place, and the presence of art engages people and connects them to that place, particularly one of those unfortunate times you’re waiting on a train, you’re experiencing the art," she said.

During a recent commute, at the New Hyde Park home of Litchfield’s "Forestation Syncopation," some passengers would glance at the art as they hurried on and off their trains. Others simply walked by.

Echoing something that Hageman, the MTA Arts & Design deputy, said — the art can provide an introduction to a station that’s new to a person going to a particular station for the first time — Floral Park resident Devon Powell said he could see several elements of realistic objects that he recognized from his own community.

"That side looks like trees and a little building right there and even a little person over there," he said.

A passageway of art

Grand Central Madison, the cavernous East Side Access to the LIRR that opened last year after decades of delays, features passageway after passageway of art, some inspired by Long Island.

Elevator mechanic Tommy Ballato, 63, of Holtsville, is nostalgic for the golden age of America’s railroad stations. Having art in the transit system is a consolation prize. It makes riding nicer, even if it’s in the background of his commute, he said.

"I do look at it, but I don’t pay attention to it. It’s nice, it’s nice to have art. It’s nice to have stuff that’s all around here. It cheers up the place," he said.

Heather Gillis, 55, an executive assistant who lives in Bellmore, was recently at the terminal with her husband, waiting for the train back to Long Island after a doctor’s appointment. The couple marveled at the mosaics, by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith.

She thought that the terminal's art, which includes wild turkeys, the beach, vignettes of Long Island and "The Sound," looked pretty, and the colors drew her in.

She's typically in a rush, she said, so this was a rare opportunity.

"I sit on the train closest to the subway and I literally run straight, just straight to the subway, so I pay attention to nothing in Penn Station, and when I come back, I don’t have the time to look," she said. "Today, we had the time, and we did notice the art."