Times Square
1981
Lawrence Heyman (b. 1932)
Oil on canvas, 30 X 50
Signed lower right: L Heyman 1981
Gift of D. Tania Heyman, 84.149

 

The TKTS booth in Times Square has been a major attraction and amenity for both resident New Yorkers and out-of-towners since it opened in 1973. In a single year, more than 1.5 million people, undeterred by the worst of summer or winter weather, line up at the booth to buy half-price tickets for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway productions.¹ Its success led to the establishment of a branch for discounted entertainment tickets in the World Trade Center and another near Fulton Street in Brooklyn. After fifteen years of intensive use, the booth depicted here (actually a construction trailer) was replaced with one of newer design.²

In this view, a bright summer day has brought a cross section of people to one of the city's busiest spots -Duffy Square at the intersection of Broadway and 47th Street, in the heart of the Times Square theater district. The painting exemplifies Heyman's interest in the refractive and reflective effects of strong sunlight and shimmering rain. Here he uses a crisp realist style to capture not only the details of the neighborhood and its array of advertising material, but also the varying postures of the tourists and theatergoers lined up to purchase tickets and those sauntering past the line. In the throng is a figure garbed in something like a spacesuit, probably, the artist suggests, "just someone dressed up like that to attract attention to an advertisement."³ In the thick of the crowd, no one seems to be giving it any notice.

Lawrence Murray Heyman, born in Washington, D.C., studied at the Tyler School of Fine Arts of Temple University, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In 1960 he enrolled at Atelier 17, a Paris printmaking workshop.⁴ A printmaker as well as a painter, he frequently depicts modern midtown Manhattan, particularly the theater district, in bold, colorful scenes.

Notes:

  1  Tom Rubin, "TDF & Theatre's Good Friend," Playbill 88, no. 6 (June, 1983).

  2  "New Booth at TKTS Site," New York Times, May 19, 1988.

  3  Letter from Lawrence Heyman, dated November 27, 1995, Museum Archives.

  4  Donald Fitzhugh, "D.C. to Parks and Back: Star Calendar Sparked Art Career," Sunday Star, May 1, 1966.