Existing comment:
Mural, East Wall (Scrambled Eggs)
They were designed by the French artist, Fernand Legér (1881-1955). The artist spent World War II in the United States. He returned to France after war and in the early 1950's was commissioned to design two mural paintings for the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The artist was unable to come to New York, so he prepared two small maquettes which were taken to New York by his former pupil, Bruce Gregory, who studied with the artist for two years in Paris, and it was Gregory who executed the murals. These murals were among the artist's last works, he died 3 years after they were donated in 1955 at the age of 74.
The murals, painted on the east and west walls overlooking the press area of the Hall. The UN multimedia.org website states the following about the mural on the West Wall (Bugs Bunny): The mural is cadmium yellow medium, toned down, United Nations blue, and white on a dark grey background. 1971.
The mural on the West side of the hall is a free-form creation in blue, white and orange on a charcoal grey wall. The other mural shows red, white and dark blue on the dark grey wall. Leger wrote: Color has a reality in itself, a life of its own; a geometric form also has a reality of itself (...) there was never any question in plastic art, in poetry, in music of representing anything. It is a matter of creating something beautiful, moving or handsome - this is by no means the same thing.
President Harry Truman referred to one as "Scrambled eggs" [East Wall] and the other has been thought to resemble "Bugs Bunny"[West Wall]" |