Long-Decaying Hell's Kitchen Mural Could Finally Be Restored

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — A historic mural over a Hell's Kitchen playground that has slowly deteriorated since its creation in the 1970s could finally be restored if a neighborhood group is able to raise the funds needed to get started.

The mural, titled "Against Domestic Colonialism," towers over the Matthews-Palmer Playground on West 45th Street near 10th Avenue. Carrying an anti-gentrification message, it was painted in 1972 by the artist Arnold Belkin — with help from neighborhood kids.

In the ensuing decades, it has chipped and faded as the wall, which is part of an adjacent co-op apartment building, has crumbled. Neighbors kicked off a fundraiser in 2015 amid rumors that the wall would be restored, but the necessary work was not completed by the co-op that owns the building. (That effort was itself a follow-up to a previous restoration campaign in 2011).

In recent weeks, however, scaffolding has reappeared on the building wall, fueling hopes that the resurfacing could finally be completed later this spring or summer. (The building owner could not be reached for comment.)

"The message itself is still quite relevant to the community," said Denise Penizzotto, an artist who has been commissioned to restore the mural using original drawings given to her by Belkin's widow.

The fundraiser, left over from the push six years ago, has raised about $49,000 — short of its $80,000 goal. Because the wall is in such poor condition, Penizzotto will essentially repaint it in its entirety, using the drawings as a blueprint.

"We call it a re-creative restoration," Penizzotto said. "We are restoring the mural to its vitality, but we have to really start from scratch as far as the painting goes."

Belkin, a Canadian-born artist who drew inspiration from the Mexican mural movement, was commissioned by the city to paint the mural when Matthews-Palmer Playground was reconstructed in the early 1970s.

It depicts a bulldozer in front of skyscrapers and multiracial groups of people holding flowers and demanding "control of our communities" — reflecting themes of development and displacement that were chosen through neighborhood discussions, according to a 2012 history by Community Board 4.

By 2012, it had become the city's oldest surviving community mural, "whose theme of community empowerment still resonates in Hell's Kitchen/Clinton," the board wrote.

Belkin's other prominent works adorn the University Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, plus other large-scale murals across Mexico and in Nicaragua. He died in 1992.

The campaigns to restore "Against Domestic Colonialism" have been spearheaded by groups including the West 45/46 Street Block Association and Hell's Kitchen Commons, as well as Belkin's widow Patricia Quijano Ferrer.

That resonance is more than just symbolic. After Penizzotto created a website for the restoration and uploaded photos of the mural being painted in 1972, she began hearing from neighbors with firsthand memories.

"I've had a couple of community members reach out and say, you put a picture of me when I was 18!" she said. "Some of the people that still live in the neighborhood remember painting with Arnold."

Read more about the mural restoration and fundraiser here.