Westchester Avenue
and Benson Street


David Saunders
Seat, 1987
bronze, 8' x 6' 8" x 8' 8"
Public Art Fund

David Saunders' bronze Seat with its bright green patina, provides the focal point for Westchester Square Park / Owen F. Dolan Park, near the train station. It is a place where people wait for buses or rest while shopping. The empty federal style chair, which the artist describes as a seat of honor, recalls the public monuments of an earlier period. A red granite boulder with line drawings of wild boars fighting, frolicking, and feeding their young serves as a pedestal, and alludes to instinctual and emotional aspects of human nature. Under the seat a bronze Merriam Webster Dictionary is open to an entry on the birds of North America, an allusion to the intellectual life. Saunders' project is also about waiting-for the seat to be filled, for the next hero to arrive. It is frequently a place where children play. Saunders' project, sponsored by the Public Art Fund, won a 1986 Award for Excellence in Design from the New York City Art Commission. Romare Bearden's stained glass window for the Westchester Square Station sponsored by Arts for Transit is located in the background.


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