Long-Lost 'Alice In Wonderland' NYC Murals Go On View

EAST HARLEM, NY — A nearly lost series of whimsical New Deal-era murals that once brightened the walls of a Lower East Side children’s hospital ward will soon go on view at the Museum of the City of New York.

"Another Wonderland: Abram Champanier’s Alice Mural" opens June 6 at the museum, located at 1220 Fifth Ave., and will run through Sept. 27, museum officials said.

The exhibition centers on "Alice of Wonderland Visiting New York," a 16-panel mural cycle created by artist Abram Champanier between 1938 and 1940 for the children’s ward at Gouverneur Hospital. Commissioned through the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, the murals reimagined Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland in 1930s New York City.

In the murals, Alice and her companions are seen exploring the city — cramming into the subway, flying over the Brooklyn Bridge, visiting the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building, parachuting into Coney Island and listening to an animal orchestra at the Central Park Children’s Zoo.

The murals were nearly lost after Gouverneur Hospital closed, according to the museum.

In 1981, art conservators Alan and Denise Farancz and a team of volunteers rescued the works, beginning a decades-long conservation effort.

The upcoming exhibition will mark the first time the mural series has been shown together in nearly 50 years.

Fourteen original panels, along with two reproduced versions, will be displayed with archival photographs, conservation materials, hospital ephemera and examples of Champanier’s earlier work.

"At the Museum of the City of New York, we are committed to presenting the city’s rich and layered history through the lens of its people, institutions, and creative legacy," Stephanie Hill Wilchfort, the director and president of the museum, said. “Another Wonderland reintroduces an extraordinary WPA-era mural that captures both the artistic imagination of the 1930s and the evolving role of public institutions during that time."

Champanier, born Abram Sherschewitz, was a Jewish immigrant from Russian Poland who arrived at Ellis Island in 1905. He later studied at the Art Students League and became a charter member of the Whitney Studio Club, the predecessor of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

His work appeared in buildings across the country, including New York’s Cotton Exchange Building, International Telephone and Telegraph Building, New York Athletic Club and the 1939 World’s Fair, according to the museum.

The exhibition is being presented in collaboration with NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.

The museum will also publish an illustrated exhibition catalogue and host public programs tied to the show, officials said.

The Museum of the City of New York is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.