After the 9/11 attacks, this artist has been painting the rebuilding of the WTC complex for 20 years

Record ID: 1639068

  • Title: After the 9/11 attacks, this artist has been painting the rebuilding of the WTC complex for 20 years
  • Date: 29th September 2021
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 28, 2021) (REUTERS) VIEW FROM 71ST FLOOR OF 3 WORLD TRADE CENTER / ARTIST TODD STONE VARIOUS OF STONE PAINTING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, TODD STONE, SAYING: "I'm a neighborhood artist. My dream had always been to be a downtown artist, and I came to New York with that as a dream and I started as an abstract artist, but always for fun would draw out my window. So I was very familiar with the New York City downtown skyline from that practice on 9/11 and witnessed the attack and suffered the consequences. And in the years that followed, I continued to paint the World Trade Center site and I brought a portfolio of my work to the attention of Silverstein Properties that focused on the construction of 7 World Trade Center, the first of the rebuilt towers. When the first tower went up for me, it was a very upful feeling that the empty sky had started to be refilled. And in response to seeing that body of work, Silverstein Properties invited me into a raw floor on the 48th floor of 7 World Trade Center, the first skyscraper to be rebuilt, as an artist in residence. So I moved in there in 2009 at the time that the memorial and the first construction at the World Trade Center started. So I was there for the 10th anniversary as the memorial opened. Eventually, the space I was in at 7 World Trade Center rented and I was moved to the newly constructed and opened 4 World Trade Center, whose evolution I had documented. I was at 4 World Trade Center until my space on the 67th floor was rented to Spotify and landed here at 3 World Trade Center on the 71st floor when it reopened about three years ago." STONE COMPARING HIS SKETCH TO VIEW / ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, TODD STONE, SAYING: "When I come up here, I am continually moved by the rebuilding effort and the energy that's gone into this place. This is still under construction and these newly built towers are sheeted in reflective glass that are continuing to present these new vistas that no one's ever seen before, and I feel very privileged to be up here at altitude, we're at 800 feet up here, watching these city reflections bounce around. It's something that's modern. It's something that's better. It's something that's contemporary. But it's linked to the tradition of Hudson River School painting, what I'm doing up here." STONE FLIPPING THROUGH HIS SKETCHES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, TODD STONE, SAYING: "I'm a crane groupie. When those first cranes arrived, for me, these were like a ladder between heaven and Earth. It was like a healing thing. It's a motif that I use all throughout my work." STONE'S PAINTING OF ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER AT NIGHT / TABLE FILLED WITH PAINT, PAINTBRUSHES AND TUBES OF PAINT TABLE FILLED WITH TUBES OF PAINT (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, TODD STONE, ON IF HE'LL BE AN ARTIST IN RESIDENCE FOR ANOTHER 12 YEARS AT SILVERSTEIN PROPERTIES, SAYING: "Lord knows. I am still fully moved when I come down to the Trade Center. I have three paintings that I'm working on that were inspired by 9/11. I feel it. I feel a place in this community that I'm part of this rebuilding effort. I see that there's a role for me here. I spent a lot of time as an abstract artist in my four white walls working out of my head. There's something extremely gratifying, being an artist and a member of this community that's down here in lower Manhattan." STONE POINTING TO ONE OF HIS PAINTINGS AT HIS EXHIBIT "RENEWAL" AT THE NYC CULTURE CLUB, A GALLERY INSIDE THE OCULUS, PART OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER TRANSPORTATION HUB (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, TODD STONE, SAYING: "This painting is a 360 degree view, panoramic view of our metropolitan area from my studio on the 71st floor, capturing that magic moment of dusk. What I'm seeing up there, I don't think anybody's seen before. This is a very traditional landscape, not unlike what the Hudson River School painters have been doing for years. But I'm at 800 feet. I think I've done more work at altitude than any artist in existence. And I'm looking at these reflections. I'm looking at these reflections on the sheathing of 4 World Trade Center bouncing the Hudson River." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, TODD STONE, SAYING: "One World Trade Center coming up, doing its thing, bouncing these reflections back and forth, north and south as you're looking at the river back over your shoulder. This way, that way. Has anyone conceived that it would work like that? Doesn't matter to me. I'm just reporting it as it looks to me. And each day, each time of season brings a different reflection in a different emotional pull. But what I'm hoping this picture triggers is a recognition of the strength of our city, the strength of our country to renew itself in the wake of what happened down here." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, TODD STONE, POINTING TO A PAINTING, SAYING: "So when the first plane came overhead, my wife and I hit the floor. We were terrified. There was an explosion. I picked up my camera and the first photograph I took was of the pigeons lifting from the sound of the explosion. And I saw for the first time the wings of the jet plane. We were surprised because we thought it was a guided missile." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, TODD STONE, POINTING TO A PAINTING, SAYING: "All of these works are titled by the time of day. This is '10:28.' This is when the tower fell. The day finished for me and I knew what I had seen. We had run for our lives three times that day and I was very close. We saw some really horrible things and came out of the day completely transformed." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, TODD STONE, POINTING TO A PAINTING, SAYING: "Part of my work has been documenting the building of One World Trade Center from when it was a hole in the ground to when the first steel emerged to the grid going up and the sheathing in the glass, which I bore witness to. This is the last step. This is when One was spired, with the top coming up. A very moving moment for me, the culmination of so many people's hard work. And this pays tribute to everybody who did this." VARIOUS OF STONE FLIPPING THROUGH HIS BOOK, "WITNESS / DOWNTOWN RISING / PAINTING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER BY TODD STONE / 2001-2021" EXTERIOR OF THE OCULUS / 3 WORLD TRADE CENTER
  • Embargoed: 13th October 2021 17:38
  • Keywords: Dara McQuillan Larry Silverstein Silverstein Properties Todd Stone artist artist in residence rent free
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Human Interest/Brights/Odd News,Society/Social Issues,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA001EWRX5CP
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: FOR ARTIST KERRY IRVINE, WHO PAINTS ON THE 80TH FLOOR OF 3 WORLD TRADE CENTER, PLEASE SEE EDIT 3188-ART-RESIDENCY/NEW YORK-IRVINE
    With a direct view of One World Trade Center on the 71st floor of 3 World Trade Center, artist Todd Stone paints rent free in 40,000 square feet of unleased space.
    Several artists have studio spaces in raw, unleased floors of 3 World Trade Center, thanks to billionaire real estate mogul Larry Silverstein and Silverstein Properties chief marketing & communications officer, Dara McQuillan. Once the floors are leased, the artists are shuffled to another floor or another building.
    Stone, 70, has spent 12 years painting the rebuilding effort of the World Trade Center complex all throughout Silverstein Properties, from the 48th floor of 7 World Trade Center to the 67th floor of 4 World Trade Center to the 71st floor of 3 World Trade Center.
    "When I come up here, I am continually moved by the rebuilding effort and the energy that's gone into this place," Stone said. "This is still under construction and these newly built towers are sheeted in reflective glass that are continuing to present these new vistas that no one's ever seen before, and I feel very privileged to be up here at altitude, we're at 800 feet up here, watching these city reflections bounce around."
    Will he bounce around the World Trade Center complex for another 12 years?
    "Lord knows," Stone said. "I am still fully moved when I come down to the Trade Center. I have three paintings that I'm working on that were inspired by 9/11. I feel it. I feel a place in this community that I'm part of this rebuilding effort. I see that there's a role for me here. I spent a lot of time as an abstract artist in my four white walls working out of my head. There's something extremely gratifying, being an artist and a member of this community that's down here in lower Manhattan."
    Stone's exhibit "Renewal" at the NYC Culture Club, a gallery inside the Oculus that's part of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, shows just how deeply ingrained he is in the lower Manhattan community.
    His paintings in oil and watercolor document the 20-year rebuilding efforts of the World Trade Center complex.
    "I'm hoping this picture triggers a recognition of the strength of our city, the strength of our country to renew itself in the wake of what happened down here," he said.
    "Renewal" closes on Sunday (October 3).
    (Production: Roselle Chen, Andrew Hofstetter)
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