Client: The Durst Organization

Overview

Artist Greg Goldberg made seven paintings as a site-specific installation at 1 World Trade Center. The works are on permanent display in the Sky Lobby, a vast 64th floor space with a ribbon of North-facing windows and double-height ceiling. The painting wall dimensions: 74' long and 10'10'' high. The individual paintings are 5'6″ high x 6' wide.

Goals

As a response to the space, the paintings are divided into three groups, at once distinct and interconnected. Each begins and ends with the same primary color: blue, red, yellow. Within each group, webs of intense color serve as a counterpoint to the brilliant white space surrounding them. While each group has its own color identity, similar pigments appear in all three groups, providing a sense of continuity and flow. It was important that the paintings hold the space through their intensity of color. Subtle echoes between the movement of the brushstrokes and the veining of the marble walls help integrate the space inside and outside of the paintings.

Process

I visited the Sky Lobby as a raw space and received an architect's rendering and the schematic drawing of the room. I proposed to make seven paintings of a scale that would be complementary to the height and length of the walls, done in a style consistent with the the work the client saw in my studio.

Additional Information

It was my hope that the sensuality, richness and complexity of the color structure are animated by the unique light of the Sky Lobby and the viewer.