Photo credit: Michael Hnatov
Accession Number: C.2019.139.425.1
Dimensions: 8 ft X 4 ft
Dimensions (Metric): 20.32 cm X 10.16 cm
Credit Line: Transferred from the New-York Historical Society
Description
Mural painted on four boards titled amernica and created in response to the attacks on America on September 11, 2001 by students at Sand Creek High School in Colorado Springs. The mural is painted in black, white, and gray, and the letters "USA" are visible within the imagery. This mural and title were inspired by Guernica, the 1937 painting by Pablo Picasso based on the German bombing of Guernica, a city in Spain.
Panel 2 of the mural depicts imagery of a bald eagle's head in the center, a distorted airplane in a tailspin at the top, the flaming torch of the Statue of Liberty in the upper right corner, and the right portion of the letter "U" with an upturned head of a figure wearing a fire helmet on the center left.
On the back the panel is a numbered key for describing the various visual elements.
Historical Notes
This mural is inspired by Guernica (1937), Pablo Picasso’s painting. Picasso’s work commemorated a devastating bombing during the Spanish Civil War, and students at Sand Creek Hill High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, applied his aesthetic to the devastation caused by the 9/11 attacks. The students enlisted painting help from their community, and ultimately 2,000 people participated. In the spring of 2002, the finished piece was displayed for several months at St. Paul’s Chapel near Ground Zero.