By F. Andrew Taylor
For a while in the '80s (you remember
the '80s, corporate greed, ramped-up military action, a
Bush in the White House), I worked as a stationer in
downtown Boston. Sometimes, I delivered supplies to the
well-appointed offices of the city's corporate giants.
What I discovered was that all corporate art wasn't
necessarily sold by the square foot with a color scheme
chosen to match the sofa. Nestled in the lobbies and back
hallways were Ansel Adams and Warhols unhyped, there for
the eyes of the salarymen and their clients. Well, and the
occasional stationer.
In Las Vegas, I have yet to find the
equivalent of the four N.C. Wyeth ship paintings (each the
size of a tennis court, adorning the lobby of a financial
institution) but there are a few pieces of first-class art
tucked into the hallways of our city's corporations. For
instance, there is a series of photographs by Christopher
Bliss in an unregarded hallway of New York-New York.
Just walk across the south bridge from the parking garage
and bear right just before the escalator down to the
casino.
The photos are all black and white
and large, about four by six feet. The pictures are all,
logically enough, of New York City. In these days of
full-color alternative weeklies and multihued money, it's
easy to forget the stark simplicity of a crisp
black-and-white photo. These were all taken with a
medium-format camera, the larger negative producing an
incredibly detailed, sharp, focused image. The subjects
are cityscapes, landmark buildings from dramatic vantage
points and New Yorkers going about their daily business. A
large group of people, presumably mostly strangers, sits
on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A row of
horse-drawn carriages awaits customers on the edge of
Central Park. In the deceptively simply titled "View
from Chrysler Building," the viewer is treated to an
eye-to-eye view with that icon's thrusting eagle head
while half the city fills the background.
For 15 years, Bliss has been
seriously photographing New York City. These works are
from the earlier period of that series. Bliss has had
quite a bit of success with his work. He maintains
residences on both coasts and regularly exhibits at the
popular Laguna Beach Art Festival, which, despite the name,
is one of the premier art events in the country. His Fine
Art prints and New York City images are steady sellers.
But there are few places you can see his work in the great
size the photos demand.
You can, however, see them here, in a
quiet, frequently overlooked hallway.
New York City photographs
On exhibit indefinitely
New York-New York
Free
