美国国家公共电台 NPR In An NYC Stairwell, One Of Keith Haring's Murals May Be In Peril

In An NYC Stairwell, One Of Keith Haring's Murals May Be In Peril 

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There was a time in the 1980s when it felt like Keith Haring's work was everywhere, especially in New York. Throughout the country, you would see his graffiti-inspired figures on posters and T-shirts. One of his lesser-known murals in New York is threatened now. NPR's Joel Rose takes us there.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE²: The mural is in a pretty unlikely place - the stairwell of a former convent called Grace House, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. But there they are, a procession of Keith Haring's familiar cartoonish figures - the radiant baby, the barking dog - dancing up and down three flights of stairs.

ROBERT SAVINA: Most of them are very simple, very joyous³, very happy. It's sort of a great meditation⁴ when you're walking down the steps or up the steps. And depending on the time of day with the light changing, you know, the mural changes. You see different things each time you pass it.

ROSE: Today, the building houses tiny, low-cost apartments. Robert Savina has lived here for two years. He discovered Grace House and the mural when he was scouting⁵ locations for a film. The work is well-preserved for its age.

SAVINA: You can see the drips of paint, which I think are really pretty amazing. He probably painted it in an hour and a half.

ROSE: The mural dates back to 1983 or '84. At the time, Grace House was a home for Catholic teenagers. It was apparently⁶ their idea to invite Keith Haring to paint in the stairwell. By then, Haring was already a star. But he spent every moment he could painting outside on walls or in the subway, as he told NPR in 1983.

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KEITH HARING: It's always the most pure situation for someone coming across it or running into it and not knowing where it came from, or how it got there, or if it's even supposed to be art.

ROSE: Haring did not necessarily intend for those public works to last.

ELISABETH SUSSMAN: The fact that it's survived and it's survived where he intended it to be is a miracle.

ROSE: That's why the Grace House mural is so precious, says Elisabeth Sussman, a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

SUSSMAN: It's the real thing from that era that represents the art world sort of at its best moment - the energy of Keith Haring, his connecting across kind of the New York class divisions. It's all there in that mural.

ROSE: Today, Keith Haring's paintings are worth millions of dollars. But this mural was largely forgotten. Grace House is still owned by Church of the Ascension around the corner. But the church, according to tenant⁷ Robert Savina, wants to sell it.

SAVINA: In the spring, we got an official letter from the church stating that they were planning on selling the building because they couldn't afford to keep it up. It's not a rich parish.

ROSE: Most of the tenants⁸ moved out by the beginning of August, but Savina stayed. So did Yana Sabeva. She says a local non-profit is backing their effort to remain in their homes.

YANA SABEVA: We're trying to fight for as much time as possible.

ROSE: Both she and Robert Savina concede this is partly about cheap rent. But he insists it's also about the future of the mural and the legacy⁹ of an artist who died of complications from AIDS in 1990.

SAVINA: My fear, and I think other peoples' fear, is that if they sold the building that anybody could really come in and just tear the building down. It didn't seem to be that there was any forethought in - how do we preserve the mural?

ROSE: Do you think there's an obligation to preserve it?

SAVINA: It's just such a big question because it's - Keith Haring is such a huge part of New York history. He represented so much to so many people and so much to the gay community in a time, and especially in New York, when so many of our contemporaries were dying. So in that regard, I feel really strongly that it's an essential piece of art history that should be preserved.

ROSE: The church declined an interview request for this story. In a statement, a spokesman for the archdiocese says, quote, "we are aware of the mural and the concern for its preservation," unquote. The church says it hasn't decided¹⁰ what to do with the building, but the tenants say they've seen a realtor showing Grace House to what appeared to be potential buyers. Joel Rose, NPR News, New York.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 joyous   

adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的

参考例句：

• The lively dance heightened the joyous atmosphere of the scene.轻快的舞蹈给这场戏渲染了欢乐气氛。
• They conveyed the joyous news to us soon.他们把这一佳音很快地传递给我们。

4 meditation   

n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录

参考例句：

• This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
• I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉，我打断了你的沉思。

5 scouting   

守候活动，童子军的活动

参考例句：

• I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。
• Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。 来自演讲部分

6 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

7 tenant   

n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用

参考例句：

• The tenant was dispossessed for not paying his rent.那名房客因未付房租而被赶走。
• The tenant is responsible for all repairs to the building.租户负责对房屋的所有修理。

8 tenants   

n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。

9 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。