Art goes underground

UNESCO Courier, April, 1992 by Marianne Strom

The year 1863 was a milestone in the history of London. It saw the opening of the Metropolitan Railway, the city's first underground line. Having an underground railway, variously called the tube, the subway, the underground or the Metro, was soon to become the hallmark of a prosperous modern city. A century later, in 1963, twenty-eight of the world's cities were the proud possessors of this form of mass transit system. Today they number almost 120, and it is thought that by the end of the century there will be more than 150 of them worldwide.

The coming of the subway revolutionized the aesthetics of urban life. Many of the early stations were designed by individual architects such as Otto Wagner, who created the thirty-six pavilions of Vienna's S-Bahn, and Leslie W. Green, who designed more than fifty stations for the London tube. French architect Hector Guimard created 141 entrances to the Paris Metro. The eleven stations of the Budapest Foldalatti, the first underground railway in continental Europe, were also designed by a single person. As time went by, however, subway stations came to be built in prestressed concrete to a standard design by teams of engineers.

In the last few decades the subway has again become a fashionable showcase for the arts. When stations are built or modernized, the commission usually goes to well-known artists or architects to whom it brings considerable prestige. In many cases, perhaps, the encounter is only a brief one, a monologue rather than a dialogue. Where there is a real meeting, however, and the chemistry between artists and architects is successful, a long-term dialogue ensues.

Painted stations and grottoes

The grotto-stations which make up a third of the stations on the Stockholm subway are a remarkable example of collaboration between the arts. Hewn from granite between twenty and forty metres underground, they are the work of individual artists or groups of artists. Each on is different from the rest. All they have in common is their cave-like character. The history of sport is the keynote of the decoration of the Stadium station. The style is straightforward and the theme is presented in unmistakable fashion. It would be hard to imagine a traveller getting off at the wrong station, even if he could not read its name.

Let us take the Brussels Metro and stop off at Hankar station. The walls and ceilings are decorated with a vigorous painting executed in bright, strident colours. The striking communicative power of this monumental work, Notre temps, by Roger Somville, prevents it from being overwhelmed by the heavy concrete volumes of the architecture.

The play of light

Toronto's Glencairn Station is a tour de force of lighting as much as architecture. Light pouring through stained glass vaulting, painted in vivid colours by Rita Letendre and entitled Joy, suffuses the whole station. At Yorkdale, another Toronto station, Michael Hiden's Rainbow is a veritable fire-work display. An electric system consisting of fluorescent tubes inserted into the arches of the vault lights up from one end of the station to the other whenever a train passes. In the United States, at Atlanta's Civic Center station, we find the same play of light, but this time it is natural. Two maintenance passages run beneath glazed arcades. To camouflage them, artist Paul Freundt, working in collaboration with the architects (Reynolds and Partners), made twin painted-steel sculptures, each measuring more than 47 metres and weighing 21 tonnes. They project a profusion of colours through the vaulted space and refract the daylight into a multicoloured display.

Palaces and treasures

Some of the stations on the Moscow underground can only be described as palatial. One of them is Komsomolskaya station, with its resplendent baroque decor and fairy-tale lighting. Designed by architects Shchusev, Mokorin and Zabolotnaya, it was built in the 1950s. At Tsertanovskaya station, built in 1983, a woman architect, Alioshina, has created an area where the light effects bring to mind Gothic cathedrals. Avtovo station in St. Petersburg, with its magnificent portico, is equally impressive.

Lille, in France, a a city which has only recently built itself a Metro, in this case a fully automatic driverless "ghost train". Here too the arts have been given plenty of exposure.

Louvre station on the Paris Metro displays copies of masterpieces in the museum above. When it was inaugurated in 1967 it sparked off a fashion for "cultural" stations. In Rome the works of art that cover the walls of Termini station are genuine ancient mosaics, while in Lyons (France), Gallo-Roman remains unearthed during excavations for the Metro are on show at Bellecour station. Architecture has pride of place in Mexico City, where travellers at Pino Suarez station can admire the base of an Aztec Pyramid.

Subways are increasingly being used as a meeting place of the arts. In the last decade, the London tube has embarked on a vast renovation and modernization programme. Similar schemes are underway in the Paris Metro and the German U-Bahns, where art exhibitions are often held. Each subway city has a special feature of its own. The traditional tilework for which Portugal is celebrated is prominently displayed in the stations of Lisbon. The New York subway is being redecorated. Beneath the vigilant eye of "Arts on the Line", the Boston subway is setting off on new rails. Chicago's overhead railway, the Loop, remains faithful to its fin de siecle image.