Restored 16-Panel Alice Mural Opens June 6 in New York, Returning After 86 Years
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 4
Restored 16-Panel Alice Mural Opens June 6 in New York, Returning After 86 Years
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 4
Summary
Sixteen panels of Abram Champanier’s Alice mural, painted from 1938 to 1940 for Gouverneur Hospital, have been reunited at the Museum of the City of New York for an exhibition opening June 6.
New patronage and broader support for art in New York City’s public hospital system revived a restoration that had stalled for roughly 30 years after only five panels were initially repaired.
Two lost panels were faithfully recreated, completing a cycle that once wrapped a children’s ward with scenes of Alice and her companions racing across New York landmarks.
The mural was one of about 2,500 works commissioned under the WPA’s Federal Art Project, and it also survived a 1981 rescue from the abandoned hospital as the building was being gutted.
After the show closes on Sept. 20, the restored work is set to move long-term to NYC Health + Hospitals/Gouverneur on Madison Street, near its original Lower East Side home.