To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the New York City subway system, The UBS Art Gallery presents Subway Style: Architecture and Design in the New York City Subway. It features a broad range of historic artifacts, archival documents, drawings, and vintage and contemporary photographs from the collection of the New York Transit Museum. Illustrating the visual elements of the subway from station architecture and ornamentation to furnishings, subway cars, advertising and map design, the exhibition reflects shifts in taste and technology over the past 100 years.
Millions of straphangers enter the maze of underground subway tunnels every day, riding more than 700 miles of track through 490 stations. Focused on their daily commute, riders may be surprised to learn that this enormous system was conceived in the 1890s with both beauty and efficiency in mind. Subway Style explores designs of the past and illustrates the layers of history still visible in contemporary subway stations. Organized thematically, the exhibition traces design developments through four major periods with more than 200 objects from the Museum's collection. The exhibition features sections devoted to station architecture and design; ceramics and metalwork; furnishings, fare collection and subway car design; and advertising, maps and signage. |