The U.S. Mission to the United Nations (USUN) in New York City, USA opened in August 2010. Designed by the late acclaimed architect Charles Gwathmey of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, the 26-story tower is located directly across First Avenue from the United Nations Headquarters.
, Bloomberg, Glenstone, The Honorable Ronald S. Lauder and Mrs. Jo Carole Lauder, Vicki and Roger Sant, Michelle Smith, Wendy Stark, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle.
© Paul Warchol
FAPE’s first site-specific contribution to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations was Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #832: A red spiral line on blue. In 2010 a team from the artist’s studio spent several weeks installing the work inside the 70-foot-high rotunda located on the 22nd floor of the building.
An anonymous gift
“Obviously a drawing of a person is not a real person, but a drawing of a line is a real line.”
Sol LeWitt
Wall Drawing #832: A red spiral line on blue
2010
Acrylic paint, 40 feet x 126 ½ feet
In 2009 FAPE commissioned Ron Gorchov to create a 19-foot-high sculpture for the 22nd floor of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The work includes a tower of 13 colored canvases, representing the original colonies of the United States, stretched over curved wooden forms and hung from a bronze obelisk.
Gift of the artist
“From the beginning, I conceived Totem to respond to what I see as the goal of FAPE—to use contemporary art to create settings that support chiefs who are striving to promote world concord. Serving this purpose involved a complex process that the individuals I worked with at FAPE understood with unusual sensitivity. Their enthusiastic support and openness to a living process and our shared concern with quality in all the details allowed me to realize the original conception—to project variable, painted color in space with a patently visible and static support.”
Ron Gorchov
Totem
2010
Painting: Oil on linen with wood support; Support: bronze-obelisk, 19 feet high
Odili Donald Odita completed two murals entitled Light and Vision for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The works greet visitors in the lobby and on the second floor before entering the press conference room.
“I conceived colors so they would evoke a fabric of vibrant and varying thoughts, feelings and considerations. People entering the building are coming in with serious matters, with the weight of the world on their minds. I wanted them to have an entryway that would wash away the weight of those worries and, at the same time, for them to be confronted with the fact that they are approaching a tapestry of different people, nations, ideas and colors. In some ways, this is a flag of many, representing people of all different positions. Hopefully onlookers can take in the colors of the fabric and the varying perspectives of member countries to work together in a unified and cohesive manner. ”
Odili Donald Odita
Light and Vision
2010
Acrylic latex wall paint on wall
Lobby: 13 feet, 3 ⅞ inches x 25 feet, 10 ⅝ inches
Second floor: 9 feet, 2 ¼ inches x 19 feet, 6 ¼ inches
Lynda Benglis donated a sculpture entitled D'Arrest for the 22nd floor representational space.
Gift of the artist
Lynda Benglis
D’Arrest
2009
Tinted polyurethane, 47 x 46 x 23 inches
FAPE contributed the art collection for USUN. Robert Storr, Chairman of FAPE’s Professional Fine Arts Committee and former Dean of the Yale School of Art, was the curator. FAPE and Storr worked closely with the State Department and Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects to select locations for art, identifying more than 180 spaces throughout 19 floors. The Collection was donated in memory of Charles Gwathmey.
Given the large international presence at this post, FAPE wanted to provide a collection that represents our country’s diverse culture, including artists born abroad but who have since become American citizens. This artistic exchange gave us an opportunity to honor host countries’ artistic traditions, and in doing so, find points of commonality that transcend politics. For example, works by Josef Albers (Germany), Shahla Arbabi (Iran), Christo and Jeanne Claude (Bulgaria), Emilia and Ilya Kabakov (Russia), André Kertész (Hungary), Julian Lethbridge (Sri Lanka), Julie Mehretu (Ethiopia), Odili Donald Odita (Nigeria), and Kiki Smith (Germany) are part of the Collection.
The Collection includes works by:
Josef Albers • Joe Andoe • Shahla Arbabi • Richard Artschwager • John Baldessari • Tina Barney • Jennifer Bartlett • Romare Bearden • Louisiana Bendolph • Mary Lee Bendolph • Lynda Benglis • Loretta Bennett • Richard Benson • Christo and Jeanne Claude • Chuck Close • Willie Cole • Robert Dash • Tom Downing • David Driskell • Richard Dupont • William Eggleston • Janet Fish • Tom Fitzharris • Lee Friedlander • Frank Gehry • Ron Gorchov • Peter Halley • Jim Isermann • Yvonne Jacquette • Jasper Johns • Ilya and Emilia Kabakov • Alex Katz • Ellsworth Kelly • André Kertész • Polly Kraft • Barbara Kruger • Rachel Lachowicz • Tomás Lasansky • Jacob Lawrence • Michael Lebron • Josh Lehrer • Julian Lethbridge • Tom Levine • Sol LeWitt • Roy Lichtenstein • Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle • Robert Mangold • Sylvia Plimack Mangold • Brice Marden • Julie Mehretu • Elizabeth Murray • Kenneth Noland • Odili Donald Odita • Catherine Opie • Loretta Pettway • Ellen Phelan • Martin Puryear • Robert Rauschenberg • Avis Robinson • Tim Rollins and K.O.S. • James Rosenquist • Clifford Ross • Susan Rothenberg • Ed Ruscha • Joel Shapiro • Jack Shear • Laurie Simmons • Kiki Smith • Alan Sonfist • Frank Stella • Fred Tomaselli • Cy Twombly • Carrie Mae Weems • William Wegman • Brett Weston • Terry Winters • Jack Youngerman
From 1947-2017 the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations was a five-bedroom apartment in a New York City hotel. When Madeleine Albright became Ambassador in 1993 she inherited an unusual color scheme—pink. Fellow FAPE Board members, Jo Carole Lauder, Harriette Levine and Wendy Luers, arranged for new carpet to be installed, chairs and sofas to be reupholstered, and paintings to be loaned by New York galleries and artists. President Clinton, an accomplished saxophone player, visited the newly refurbished apartment, and admired Claes Oldenburg’s Soft Saxophone, which was acquired by FAPE.
United States Mission to the United Nations
799 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
