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Rainbow Swash, Corita, Southeast Expressway, Boston, MA
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Rainbow Swash, Boston, MA
Rainbow Swash is a work by Corita Kent in the Dorchester
neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The rainbow design painted on
a 140-foot (43 m) tall LNG storage tank is the largest copyrighted
work of art in the world. Notably, the Swash appeared in the opening
credits to the 2005 film Fever Pitch.
Originally created in 1971, the Rainbow Swash comprises large streaks of rainbow colors over a natural gas storage tank on Dorchester's waterfront, located about two miles (3 km) south of Downtown Boston. The landmark is highly visible from the Southeast Expressway and passed by thousands of commuters daily. The design was transferred to its present location in 1992 when the original LNG tank was torn down. HistoryIn 1971, then-Boston Gas Company president Eli Goldstone commissioned Corita Kent to paint the Rainbow Swash design on one of two adjacent LNG tanks facing Boston's Southeast Expressway. The original design was painted on an 8-inch (20 cm) scale model with 20 painters reproducing the work on the 140-foot (43 m) high tank Since the 1970s, the Rainbow Swash has been controversial. The mural was criticized as featuring a profile of Vietnamese Leader Ho Chi Minh's face in its blue stripe.Kent was a peace activist and some believe she was protesting the Vietnam War, but Kent herself always denied embedding such a profile. In 1992, the original rainbow-painted LNG tank was torn down and the Rainbow Swash was recreated on the adjacent tank despite objections from veterans groups. However, the blue stripe is less pronounced in the 1992 reproduction. In 2000, Boston Gas was acquired by Keyspan and the Keyspan logo replaced the Boston Gas logo under the rainbow. Keyspan was acquired and merged into National Grid and the National Grid logo was placed over the Keyspan logo in September 2007. The Artist Corita Kent (November 20, 1918 – September 18, 1986), aka Sister Mary Corita Kent, was born Frances Elizabeth Kent in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Kent was an artist and an educator who worked in Los Angeles and Boston. She worked almost exclusively with silkscreen and serigraphy, helping to establish it as a fine art medium. Her artwork, with its messages of love and peace, was particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. At the age of eighteen Kent entered the Roman Catholic order of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles. She also studied at the University of Southern California where she earned her MA in Art History in 1951.Between 1938 and 1968 Kent lived and worked in the Immaculate Heart Community. She taught in the Immaculate Heart College and was the chairman of its art department. She left the order in 1968 and moved to Boston, where she devoted herself to making art. She died of cancer in 1986. Kent created several hundred serigraph designs, for posters, book covers, and murals. Her work includes the 1985 Love Stamp and Rainbow Swash, the 150-foot (46 m)-high natural gas tank in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. This article is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License.
It Uses material from the Wikipedia article:
Rainbow Swash
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Solid Gold Oldies
Music hits, movies and nostalgia from the 50's , 60's and more. |
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03-23-09
