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| Antonio Martorell |
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Children's ABC
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Completion Date:
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1995
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Medium:
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Woodcut mural on
fabric
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Dimensions:
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n/a
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Location:
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P.S. 48
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Address:
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3460 Broadway, Manhattan
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Architect:
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School Construction Authority
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Sponsor Agency:
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Board of Education
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Design Agency:
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School Construction Authority
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Antonio Martorell has designed an alphabet in collaboration with the P.S. 48 students so that they will endear themselves to letters and words. The concept is based on the tradition of medieval and baroque alphabets with human figures designed into the letters. The children in gym class playfully posed as models for the letters of the alphabet.
The project consists of the letters of the alphabet depicted in 26 colored woodcuts that were eventually printed in a variety of textured and colored fabrics, and subsequently framed and hung in the school auditorium alongside the actual wooden plates on the back wall. On the two side walls, a quotation from Eugenio Maria de Hostos was spelled out in both English and Spanish (Hostos was a turn of the century educator of Dominican and Puerto Rican lineage). The quote reads, "Ignorance is the worst enemy of civilization."
About the Artist...
Antonio Martorell was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and has been involved in the arts ever since to justify his birth and postpone his death. This urge has taken him to work closely with a number of collaborators including the public in many countries. In a great variety of media, he has communicated in unpredictable but engaging ways, the quest for that something else that becomes a bonding agent which leads to some sort of discovery. Martorell has exhibited and performed, created installations, engaged in workshops, and lectured in Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, and Europe, and participated in international collective exhibitions on all five continents. He has received numerous awards and held many individual exhibitions nationally and internationally.
Artist Quote...
It has been an altogether fine experience of what can be done in public arts when the concern of everyone is taken into consideration and the scope of the artwork is educational for all involved, especially in the context of art for a learning institution. -- Martorell
