Art for Peace at the United Nations
While geopolitics is at the forefront of the 2024 General Assembly, diplomacy will happen among world-class art
As world leaders and dignitaries descend upon the United Nations headquarters in New York this week for the 2024 General Assembly, they’ll meet and practice diplomacy amidst an impressive collection of art.
The U.N. headquarters could serve as a museum in itself. Its collection of wide-ranging media hail from different parts of the world and decorate the hallways, conference halls, and the outside grounds. Some of the pieces are donated by individual countries, others have been commissioned by the U.N. or on loan from trusts.
I have covered many General Assemblies as a UN producer for CNN. I was lucky enough to roam the halls in between monitoring emergency Security Council meetings about the Syrian Civil War and covered a fashion show in the General Assembly Hall. (I even had a chance to interview Secretary General Antonio Guterres for Snapchat.) Here are some of my favorite pieces of art - and their history - at the United Nations.
The Architecture of the United Nations Headquarters
The Secretariat building itself is a work of art and shouldn’t be overlooked. When the United Nations began planning for its headquarters in New York in 1947, they decided to bring together 10 architects from different parts of the world rather than hold a competition with traditional proposals. Among these architects on the design panel were Le Corbusier of France and Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil.
Rather than draw on historical references, the panel of architects wanted to create something fresh and new that was “meant to symbolize the bright, peaceful future ahead that does not linger in the past,” according to the U.N.
They landed on a simple, geometric building with Vermont marble on its sides and a bright green glass across the larger front and back. The building was completed in 1952.
The 39-story building is surrounded by open spaces and sits on the eastern side of Manhattan, along the East River. It is the only freestanding skyscraper in New York.
When reflecting on building the Secretariat, Niemeyer said: "we must have in mind what is the UN? It is an organization to set the nations of the world in a common direction and gives to the world security. I think it is difficult to get this into steel and stone. But if we make something representing the true spirit of our age, of comprehension and solidarity, it will by its own strength give the idea that that is the big political effort, too.”
The Léger Murals of the General Assembly Hall
Two massive murals by French artist Fernand Léger flank the sides of the GA Hall. His personal figurative style is on full display with bright colors that pop against the light wood structures and the deep green of the podium.
Leger served in World War I and the military influenced his work. He said, “The crudeness, variety, humor, and downright perfection of certain men around me, their precise sense of utilitarian reality and its application in the midst of the life-and-death drama we were in ... made me want to paint in slang with all its color and mobility.” But he was also influenced by travels to New York City and found the lights of Broadway awesome: "I was struck by the neon advertisements flashing all over Broadway. You are there, you talk to someone, and all of a sudden he turns blue. Then the color fades another one comes and turns him red or yellow." These elements are evident in the two murals.
The mural of the East Wall are odd-shaped colors of red, white, and dark blue against dark gray. President Harry Truman said they looked like “Scrambled Eggs” and that is how it is referred to until this day.
The mural on the West Wall — or as Truman saw it, “Bugs Bunny” — is more free form with a stronger outline containing a lighter blue, white and orange.
Léger was not able to travel to New York to install the paintings but gave the design to his former student, Bruce Gregory, who executed the murals in 1952.
Tapestry of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’
Sitting just outside the doors to the Security Council chamber hangs a tapestry of Pablo Picasso’s famous “Guernica.” The original painting depicts the bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War. It shows the horrors of war, with brutal imagery of people and animals suffering.
Nelson Rockefeller commissioned the tapestry version and it was overseen by Picasso himself, woven by the hands of Atelier J. de la Baume-Durrbach in France. It was loaned to the UN in 1985.
In 2021, the tapestry curiously was removed without much public guidance. There seemed to be questions about whether it would remain within the walls of the UN. But after a few months, it was returned, and Rockefeller Jr. said: “The Guernica tapestry with its probing symbolism - its depiction of horrific aspects of human nature - wrestles with the cruelty, darkness, and also a seed of hope within humanity. I am grateful that the tapestry will be able to continue to reach a broader segment of the world's population and magnity its ability to touch lives and educate."
Marc Chagall’s ‘Peace Window’
In 1961, Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 UN staffers were killed in a plane crash over Northern Rhodesia while flying to peace negotiations for the Congo crisis. Shortly afterward, a UN committee asked Chagall to create a piece of work, because Hammarskjöld had been a huge admirer of the French artist.
Chagall created a stained-glass window of bright blue that drew on biblical references. At the unveiling of the piece, Chagall said “With all my soul I wanted to convey that extent of my inspiration and the inspiration of Dag Hammarskjöld and all those who died for peace, for that was the very purpose for which the UN was founded."
Portrait of Javier Perez de Cuellar by Hans Erni
Portraits of the former Secretaries General line the main hallway on the first floor of the Secretariat building. Former Secretary General Javier Perez de Cueller’s portrait stands out remarkably from the others that are more traditional and stately in style.
This painting, by Swiss artist Hans Erni, is more abstract than the others and relies on bold reds, shapes, and other lines, to make this portrait pop. Erni said he wanted to evoke a backdrop of fire but allow Javier Perez de Cuellar to show an image of preserverance as tried to bring people together around the world.
‘Non-Violence’
This bronze sculpture of a gun with its barrel tied in a knot sits in one of the plazas of the UN Headquarters. It was created by artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd after his friend, John Lennon, was murdered in New York City. The piece originally sat in Lennon’s Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park and was dedicated to Lennon’s “vision of a world at peace.”
Reuterswärd said in 1988 that he wanted to add humor to the piece, because he believed humor brought people together: “While making my peace-symbol, I thought of the importance of introducing a touch of humor, just to make my 'weapon' symbolically ridiculous and completely out of order."
In 1988, the Government of Luxembourg bought the sculpture and donated it to the United Nations.
“Mankind’s Struggle for a Lasting Peace”
This mural was one of the first to be installed at the United Nations in 1953. Jose Vela Zanetti, from the Dominican Republic, wanted to depict rebuilding a war-torn world. The painting starts off with destruction and ends with a resurrection. In the middle, a four-armed figure holds the symbol of the UN.
Vela Zanetti said “These symbols cry out, pray, praise and condemn, but altogether they represent the hope of man for achieving peace.”
And of course, The Dodo
The government of Mauritius donated this replica to the UN in 2002. The larger sculpture sits at Mauritius’ Permanent Mission to the UN. The Dodo, which hails from Mauritius, went extinct in the 1600s and its removal from earth was attributed to human activity.
Much of this information has been compiled using the UN’s gift catalog and art registry. You can look through more of the collection here.