Vandalized Art Being Restored in Chicago

The city brought art to passengers on the elevated trains running to O’Hare International Airport--a 50-foot, $500,000 mural placed at a train stop.

But over the years, vandals ravaged the painting, “Harlem Station.” Now, passengers and nearby business owners are helping to pay for restoration so that it can go back on display for those who ride the city’s public trains.

“We have an element in society that thinks it’s funny to do (vandalism) like this. We don’t,” said Richard Payne, president of a company near the Harlem Avenue stop on the city’s northwest side.

Payne is among the people who so far have contributed about $10,000 toward the $40,000 cost of restoring the painted aluminum mural, done specifically for the station in 1984 by New York artist Alex Katz.

The artwork depicts the ethnic diversity of Chicago commuters. Commissioned at a cost of $60,000, it was recently appraised at $500,000, said Hamza Walker, a public-art coordinator with the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

When the mural was first installed, the Chicago Transit Authority had ticket agents at the stop 24 hours a day. But budget cutbacks left the station staffed only part of the day, leaving the painting vulnerable to vandalism. Graffiti were painted on the mural, food was thrown against it, and someone slashed the work with a set of keys.

The five 5-by-10-foot panels were boarded over in 1989 and removed last year. They were delivered to the North Side studios of Rick Strilky, an oil-painting conservator, last summer, and he has begun restoration work.

“It’s been attacked by graffiti artists; it has all different sorts of stains, marker marks, food stains, and it has areas that have been etched with something like keys,” Strilky said.

“On one panel, as much as 50% is defaced. There is an amount of permanent damage that has been done,” he added.

Strilky couldn’t estimate when the restoration would be complete. But donations are rolling in from residents and train riders who want the mural back on display.

“The city has helped us with some of its grant programs for improving the facades of buildings in the area. When the city demonstrates its willingness to help out businesses, we ought to reciprocate,” Payne said.

“I don’t remember what we kicked in--$50 or $100, something like that. It’s the principle,” Payne said.

When the piece is reinstalled, it will be covered by a $30,000 glass barrier to prevent future damage, Walker said. But some damage can’t be undone, and Katz said he will never again leave an artwork as exposed as “Harlem Station” originally was.

“I thought it could be left alone. I thought I’d give it a chance, see what happened, but it didn’t work out. Depressing is the word,” Katz said.