So what could possibly enhance the image of Earth's tallest and most iconic peak? Fine art, that's what.
At least if you ask New York artist Ranan Lurie, who is in Nepal today watching three of his acrylic canvases embark on the arduous trek up the mountain. Three Nepalese climbers, each toting a canvas, will install the panels at the top of the mountain, the first art placement ever on the peak.
The canvases comprise smaller parts of Lurie's colossal Uniting Painting, which in 2005 was displayed in the United Nation's New York headquarters. The multi-piece, multi-media art installation consisted of dozens of panels that spanned 600 feet. The work descended from the U.N. ceiling and into the visitors' lobby. It traveled at ground level into the outdoor plaza and beyond to the East River where it continued across the water to Roosevelt Island.
The artwork was removed during ongoing renovations at the U.N. building, but Lurie says it will eventually return. In the meantime, other sections of The Uniting Painting have found their way to the border between North and South Korea, where it is framed by wire. Another bit was captured on an electronic chip and blasted into space via the Space Shuttle in 2010.
Nepal was interested in the work and its placement on Everest as a way of boosting the nation's fine-arts profile, Lurie says. The three panels are encased in a protective covering to help them weather the elements. In a year or so, they'll be returned for display in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital.
Lurie refers to his painting as "a graphic philosophy." Consider it the Esperanto of fine art, he says. He'd like the concept spread to other parts of the world. In his mind's eye, the artist envisions a "belt" of Uniting paintings surrounding the globe to represent "friendship, equality and mutual respect." It would be visible from space and would signal "that we humans are good people. Unfortunately, we carry the sword of Sparta, but we also wave the olive branch of good art."
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