Tag: Flushing-Meadows

‘Most Wanted’: Robert Moses vs. Andy Warhol

Above: a hilariously hideous Robert Moses mosaic, on the sidewalk at Flushing Meadows

Robert Moses wanted the World’s Fair of 1964 in Flushing Meadows to be a family affair with little controversial material. Not surprisingly this meant few displays for American art.

So how did an Andy Warhol mural get plastered on the New York State Pavilion, one of the most conspicuous buildings at the fair?

The Pavilion was designed by Philip Johnson, also the designer of Museum of Modern Art’s midtown galleries and also the head of architecture and design there. Johnson was an admirer of Warhol’s ever since the Museum of Modern Art’s pivotal December 1962 show on pop art, where its very merits were dissected by critics.

Johnson commissioned Warhol and other pop artists to create work for the exterior of the pavilion, and the result was ‘Thirteen Most Wanted Men’, blown-up mugshots of the FBI’s most wanted list.

One week before opening to the public, Johnson informed Warhol that the governor objected to the piece, because it just happened to feature mostly Italians and officials feared it would offend Italian visitors.

Warhol, however, knew very well that Moses was behind the objection. And it may not have been anything to do with the content. Andy was becoming a polarizing figure by this time. This was the year Warhol would make his move from artist to icon, the year he opened the Factory, the year he filmed such provocative movies as ‘Blow Job’ and ‘Taylor Mead’s Ass’, and the year his studios were raided by police and his work confiscated for its offensive content. Andy Warhol was anything but family friendly in 1964.

So his mural was literally whitewashed. Warhol intended to replace it with a new design: 25 silkscreen panels of Robert Moses’ face in a Joker-like grin. Unsurprisingly, Johnson did not think this appropriate for the main pavilion of Moses’ fair.

A vestige of Warhol’s Moses can be found in a mosaic in Flushing Meadows.

By the way, Warhol later claimed in his biography that he was happy that his art was painted over at the pavilion: “Now I wouldn’t have to feel responsible if one of the criminals ever got turned in to t he FBI because someone had recognized him from my pictures.”

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Amusements and Thrills Podcasts

PODCAST: The New York World’s Fair of 1964-65

Come with us as we jettison ourselves into the future as it was seen in the past — namely the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Fans of Robert Moses, 1960s space-age optimism and really, really large tires should take special note to listen.

Listen to it HERE:

The Johnson Wax Pavilion, surrounded in examples of ’64 loopy, futuristic architecture.

The Port Authority Heliport, where guest could fly in via helicopter from Manhattan, is one of the few buildings still standing today. It is now Terrace On The Park. (Courtesy here).

Piecing together the heavy US Steel-created Unisphere.

The New York State pavilion — Tent of Tomorrow! — as it looked then:

And today.

The New York City Pavilion featured the city of New York in miniature. Called the Panorama, it’s still thriving at the Queens Museum and is regularly updated to reflect the changing city. One significant difference: as a memorial, the World Trade Center remains standing in downtown Manhattan.

Many attractions from the World’s Fair now make their home in other parts of the world. The Uniroyal tire ferris wheel, for instance, now sits in Allen Park, Michigan, without its seats.

Another favorite, the world’s largest cheese, naturally still makes its home in its home state of Wisconsin.

The famous Belgian Village, with the park’s defining snack being sold just the left of the picture (i.e. the Bel Gem Waffle).

Dupont’s zippy musical ‘The World of Chemistry’ didn’t quite make it to Broadway.

I highly, highly recommend a few website for some further information about the World’s Fair. NYWF64 has a exhaustive description of almost every pavilion, including a great many we didnt mention, like The Underground Home, Sinclair’s Dinoland, and the Lunar Fountain.

Jeffrey Stanton has an excellent site about it as well.

The World’s Fair tire pic is from a great page by Modern Mechanix featuring magazine photos from the beginnings of the fair.

A few months ago we wrote about the Singer Bowl, a World’s Fair auditorium that later become the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, home of the U.S. Open.

Find all of our Robert Moses coverage here.