<p>When Beal was commissioned to create the pair of murals for the IRT Mezzanine, he decided to was to depict a modern interpretation of the Greek myth about Persephone, queen of the underworld. &nbsp;The artist posed his friends, created an oil painting and shipped it off to Italy where it was fabricated into a 200 lb glass mosaic. &nbsp;The entire process took about 10 years and was installed three days after September 11th. &nbsp;Considered a symbol of hope, Beal was subsequently commissioned to create a companion mural, The Onset of Winter. In this update of the ancient story, Persephone fulfills her agreement to return to the underworld, thus signaling the start of the autumn and winter seasons. She "twists in agony at the top of the stairs, knowing that she must go but wishing that she could stay," explains the artist. "The event is being filmed with a group of spectators, who certainly would have materialized." &nbsp;Again Beal posed his friends for the artwork including his dog Scoo2er.&nbsp;</p>

South Side  of the Platform

North Side of the Platform

The Return of Spring / The Onset of Winter (Times Square Murals)

<p>Sandra Bloodworth, director of Arts for Transit, discusses the work The Return of Spring/The Onset of Winter, by Jack Beal, located in the Times Square Station, 42nd Street.</p>

 An American realist painter. Beal achieved recognition in New York City and elsewhere during the 1960s. His realist paintings were seen in solo exhibitions at the Allen Frumkin Galleries in New York City and Chicago, and dozens of other galleries in New York, Boston, Miami, Paris and elsewhere. His paintings have been included in important exhibitions at The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, among other fine art institutions. In 1976, Beal was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1983.

Jack Beal

SITES

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS