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Forte (Quarropas); Blue Rails (White Plains)

White Plains

Forte (Quarropas); Blue Rails (White Plains)

Barbara Takenaga
Artwork in laminated glass and mosaic by Barbara Takenaga showing blues and silvers in an abstract design.
“Forte (Quarropas)” (2020) © Barbara Takenaga, Metro-North White Plains Station. Photo: Steve Bates

About the project

The artwork by Barbara Takenaga for the White Plains station consists of mosaic and laminated glass. Featuring the artist’s signature stylized abstract forms, the artwork emits deep vibrant blue in movement that references rail travel, the history of the city, and its exuberant energy. 

“Blue Rails (White Plains)” in laminated glass is located on the side platform overlooking the station’s parking lot and Hamilton Avenue. The long horizontal image is composed of a series of mirrored abstract patterns in a forward and backward movement in space. Each composition is anchored by the radiating light from a misty horizon suggesting the white mist and the disappearing tracks as they move away from the station. Animated by shifting light throughout the day, "Blue Rails (White Plains)" is a visual play to the "rhythm of the rails."

Titled after the old name of White Plains, the mosaic artwork "Forte (Quarropas)" features a sweeping composition of dynamic sky with flowing blue water, evoking a celestial aspect and the role water has played throughout the history of White Plains. The work serves as an energized entry into a place of travel and movement. Amid the deep sea of blue, splashes of iridescent green to pink and aqua sparkle and come to live following the footsteps of the commuters passing through the lobby wall. 

As stated by Takenaga, “White Plains has a rich and diverse past, from its modern history tracing way back to the presence of Native Americans. The translation of the wonderful Wecquaesgeek name 'Quarropas,' meaning 'white marshes' or 'plains of white,' still continues today in a very resonant way. I am interested in the poetry and imagined references to landscape — filtered through my working process which is visually abstract and stylized, and at the same time pays homage to the city of water and white mists.” 

About the artist

Barbara Takenaga is known for swirling, abstract paintings in stunningly detailed compositions. She paints her kaleidoscopic, geometric compositions of dots and lines completely freehand in a practice that's both meticulous and meditative. Many of her compositions begin with a single circle from which the forms undulate, radiate, and recede in seemingly infinite space. Takenaga was the Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Art at Williams College, a position she held from 1985 to 2018. Her work has been widely exhibited at institutions and she is a recipient of the 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, among many other recognitions.