You may have seen it pop up recently downtown, and wondered what it's all about. A painting, nearly 100 feet wide, and almost 30 feet tall, on West Commerce street by Main Plaza, in an environment where it really stands out. It's quite unlike the environs, quite new, quite large, and quite red.
Maura Reilly, Director of the Linda Pace Foundation, describes it as "...an abstract design. So it’s an interesting addition to the Historic Main Plaza."
It’s a large-scale painting, part of a big east-facing wall (the one above Bill Miller Bar-B-Q), and next to the Frost Bank parking garage. It overlooks the Main Plaza, dominated by San Fernando Cathedral. According to Reilly, the Pace Foundation’s objectives, amongst others, are that resident and visitors will embrace the idea that San Antonio has a great contemporary art scene.
The Artist is Venezuelan artist Arturo Herrera, who was one of Art Pace’s resident Artists, as Reilly recalls.
"He was at Art Pace in 2000. And that’s when he met Linda Pace, and that’s when they started a long term relationship and friendship," Reilly says.
Linda Pace devised Art Pace to create art, and the Linda Pace Foundation, to collect art. Given that the Foundation is highlighting this public display, is the foundation's focus slightly changing?
"It’s actually not even a slight change, it’s a massive change," Reilly says. Then she hints at something major. "Hopefully by 2017 we will have a very large-scale museum."
More on this potential new San Antonio art museum in subsequent reports. For a time lapse of the artist painting the wall, watch the video below.
