It’s not neccessarily what a visitor would expect to find on the gates of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library’s Audubon Terrace in Washington Heights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The plaza, which evokes the Renaissance in Spain, now features Tom Sanford’s colorful wood cut-out paintings of neighborhood scenes. It’s an installation called “Uptown Visions.”<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
“Uptown Visions” is a new art installation from artist Tom Sanford at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in Washington Heights\u00a0
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It features colorful wood cut-out paintings with scenes from Washington Heights, Harlem and Hamilton Heights\u00a0
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Sanford was inspired by Spanish painter Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla’s “Vision of Spain” murals, which have been inside the museum for 100 years\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If you have ever been to Washington Heights or Harlem in summer, you will know that there is just a palpable energy as soon as the weather gets warm,” said Sanford, who has called Harlem and Hamilton Heights home for more than 30 years. “It seems like half the residents of the neighborhood kind of move their living room from inside to outside and it’s just a party all summer long.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 40-foot-long installation features a Frio Frio Domican shaved ice cart, basketball at the legendary Rucker and Dyckman Parks and a jazz musician.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s just such an honor to have it here at such a venerable museum that happens to be in my neighborhood,” said Sanford of his first solo museum installation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sanford was inspired by Spanish painter Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla’s “Vision of Spain” murals inside the museum. The 14-panel work was installed 100 years ago. It features Soralla’s images captured from his travels around Spain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’ve actually been thinking about this for years if I could make scenes from my neighborhood in debt to or ode to Sorolla, so this is my vision of uptown as opposed to his visions of Spain,” said Sanford, who recently has his wood cut-out paintings of Knicks legends on display at City Hall during the professional basketball team’s march to an NBA title.<\/p>\n
The installation at the Hispanic Society launches a celebration of 100 years of Sorolla’s work with new exhibitions, curator talks and public programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The Hispanic Society believes in engaging with its community, and what better way when you are here in the upper part of Manhattan where there is a vibrant and alive art community to engage with it,” said Patrick Lenaghan, the head of prints and photographs at the museum and library, which is located on Broadway between West 155th and 156th streets. Admission is free.\u00a0<\/p>\n